WHAT IS TOW?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3777, 9 November 1907, Page 3

WHAT IS TOW?

A Comprehensive Definition.

“ When I was in the flaxmilling and twine-making business some years ago,” said a flax man to a Dominion representative, “ a bale of tow used to consist of the following articles Dungarees, bottles of oil, spanners, brick-bats, and big stones, pipes, tobacco, and matches, flax bands, rubbish such as can be got round a scutcher house, from cast - iron stripper drums weighing xcwt to and every portion of the machinery that goes to make up a flax-milling plant. The only exceptions were those parts which are bigger than. the bale itself, and these were usually omitted.” This was a rather strong picture with high lights, and we were forced to demand explanations and corroboration. Why should a miller sell his machinery at tow prices ? “ It was not the miller’s work,” replied our friend. ‘‘These articles were put into the bales by his men. The presser was, in those days, paid by weight, and if hh could find a good solid body handy to make the bale heavy—in it went- Sometimes the ‘ boss ’ would remark, ‘ That looks a heavy bale for its size,’ and the presser would explain that he had put it through the pressing machine twice.”

But the matches, pipes, dungaT rees, bottles of ? ‘ ‘ They were due to the practice of treating the tow heap as a place where any body could have a shake-down. Plenty of these things rolled out of the pockets of men who slept on the heap.” But that is all past ? '• Well, I don’t know that it is any different to-dav. Nobody knows except the men who open out the bales —the manufacturers who make use of the tow in the Old Country. Our tow is not graded. It is packed without Government inspection and shipped ''away without examination or grading—shipped simply for what 'it is worth. It is the most dangerous stuff that could possibly be put aboard a ship, because of the foreign bodies in it the matches.” What is the remedy ?

“It ought to be graded, and carry tags inside and out, and also the miller’s brand. Then the manufacturer who opens out the bale, if dissatisfied, could ascertain the miller whose brand it bears, and that miller could be warned that if the tow were not improved in future, his shipments would be consigned back to him. That would quickly set matters right.”