The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1907 THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3777, 21 November 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1907 THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Rkpjwing to the toast of the Seifert Company at the opening celebration banquet of the Miranui mill, Mr Seifert touched upon several subjects of interest to those Connected with the hemp industry, which are worthy of reproduction. Mr Seifert said it was 18 years since he first worked in a flax mill. “The first mill I ever worked in,” said Mr Seifert, “ used to work 60 hours per week. An ordinary machine used to put through from to 4 tons of green leaf per day. There was tremendous variation in the quality. The principal of dressing was exactly the same today as it was 18 years ago, but the machines have considerably improved in detail, and now run through more than double the quantity, and dress a much better, article. At that time there was hardly five per cent of the millers in the Colony who had any idea what it cost to dress hemp. They used to reckon on one figure and in practise it took several pounds more per ton. I believe in a few years great changes must take place in our method of dressing.” Speaking in regard to the growth of flax, Mr Seifert said : “experience has proved that flax does not grow well when it is cut say between the 10th April and the middle of July, but as the weather is so horribly bad in the Spring, millers are sorely tempted to start late and cut beyond the time when flax would grow well.” Speaking of other hemp that enters into competition with New Zealand, he said, “At the present time there is over 300,000 tons of sisil turned out per year. The production has increased 300 per cent within 15 years. Many years ago the method of dressing it was very primitive, and it took a vast amount of labour. To-day they have most up-to-date methods, and in looking back we find that when sisil was only TlB per ton in New York or London, they kept slightly increasing the production, which goes to prove that they must have made it pay. To-day tremendous quantities are grown in Youcatan and Mexico. It is also grown in some of the islands round there, and in Honolulu, Fiji, New Guinea, Borneo, and they intend to go in for it largely in Queensland, where already it is proved that it grows to perfection. The Governments of these respective countries are doing their best to help the industry, unlike our Government who have gone out of their way to penalise growers of flax.” Speaking of Manila, he said, “they evidently dress about 100,000 tons per year. Their hemp is superior to ours, and it is believed that if they could invent a machine to dress it, that there would be an enormous increase in the production. The point which I wish to emphasise is this, they .have already proved that sisal can be produced on a low figure. As six per cent of the exports from Manila is hemp, these people, to live, must dress it whether high or low, and if they get a machine (which is always probable) we must either improve our quality or decrease the cost of production, or else give up the idea of making flaxmilling a permanent industry, because some day the price must fall, so that it will be a question of the survival of the fittest.”

In dealing with the cost of production, he drew attention to the large waste of by-product which costs a considerable sum to get rid of. He said he believed, with many others, that this by-product must have some value, and if millers could make money out of what is now waste, it should have the same effect as cheapening the cost of production. While giving the Government credit for what it had done to assist the industry, he could not understand why flax - growers should be singled out with regard to Income Tax. Mr Seifert’s remarks in respect to grading will appear in a subsequent issue.