The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, January 30, 1909. THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 30 January 1909, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, January 30, 1909. THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Now that low prices are ruling in the hemp market, those interested are searching for some means whereby this important industry could be eased up. The question of royalty has been receiving a good deal of attention. At yesterday’s meeting of the New Zealand Flaxmillers’ Association, Mr H. Greig presiding, the labour question in relation to the cost of production was. discussed. The chairman said that at the last meeting it was agreed that delegates from the Association should meet representatives of the Workers’ Union to see if any workable arrangement could be arrived at. Nothing had come of a large amount of correspondence, but the Union had made a proposition that a Royal Commission should be set up by the Government to go into the matter of royalties,'etc. The millers have decided that a meeting be ai ranged with the workers at Foxton. The members present discussed the proposal for a Commission, but feeling was against any interference with royalties. Where millers own or lease flax areas, the question of royalty does not play so important a part as in the case of millers, who, merely obtain cutting rights on a royalty basis. Legislation should, however, be passed to safeguard the industry against the greed of green flax monopolists. The owner of green flax is justified in getting a fair rate of interest from his flax area and he must protect himself against other risks, but a happy medium should be struck between the millers and flaxgrowers. What we believe to be a true solution of the royalty question is that the Government should acquire all flax areas, and carry out drainage and cultivation. It would be a profitable State undertaking and further safeguard the industry. We have absolutely no time for the bloated monopolist who fancies he can ride rough shod over the miller and the employees, and play ducks and drakes with the industry. We urge the Union to take this matter in hand—they have plenty of data to go on —portions of which would not make very pleasant reading to certain interested parties if published broadcast throughout the press of Australasia. The opportunity has now arrived for the Union and those millers who are under the ban of the monopolists to lay the matter before the Government with a view to State ownership, thereby placing the acquiring of the green blade on a fair and equitable basis. The industrial outlook is satisfactory ; the shipping companies have met the millers in a generous spirit ; the Agricultural Department is doing its share in relerence to careful grading, but the green blade upon which everything else depends must for all time be religiously safeguarded from sharks, who would gnaw out the vitals of an industry which means so much to the Dominion as a whole.