THE FLAX INDUSTRY AGAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 19 January 1909, Page 3

THE FLAX INDUSTRY AGAIN.

[to the editor.]

Sir,— lt is so seldom that the capitalist lion lies down with the lamb of Unionism that I cannot help applauding in your columns, the severe strictures uttered by Mr J. R. Stansell at Otaki on Wednesday last, regarding excessive royalty on flax. Mr Stansell’s criticism bears out my recent statements under this heading, and this corroboration is the more pleasing as coming from one whose point of view must of necessity be considerably different from ours. The position ot the Flaxmillers’ Association in the matter is one that would bear a little explanation. Here we have on the one hand a prominent miller definitely asserting that the industry is being crushed and individual millowners driven to dishonoured and suicidal graves, solely by the crushing burden of present-day royalties, and on the other hand we have an association pledged to further the best interests of those concerned with the upper end of the trade, doing, like the House of Lords in lolanthe, “ nothing in particular,” and doing it very well. For some considerable time after the existing award was made, we were told through the medium of every possible paper, that the wages allotted to us would shut every mill affected unless they were reduced. Then, without a word of warning, “Short’s the friend, not Codliu.” It is the royalties that spell ruination, not the humble but necessary wage of the worker. This, of course, has always been our argument, and we are more than pleased to have it confirmed as emphatically as it was by Mr Stansell. Still, isn’t the Flaxmillers’ Association going to do anything ?—I am, etc., P. T. Robinson, Secretary Flaxmillers’ Employees’ Union. Foxton, January 15, 1909.