The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, February 6, 1909. THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 6 February 1909, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, February 6, 1909. THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Tub; Wellington Post in a recent issue wrote editorially on the present condition of the above industry as follows: —“Is the hemp industry doomed ? Is hemp to be hanged ? Mournfully, a reporter wrote yesterday in one of our local cotuemporaries: “The flax industry is threatened with extinction, chiefly (it is stated) because the men want more wages than millers say they can pay. It is sad, 1 ' added the reporter, with real pathos, “to see a flourishing industry ring-barked to its death, by whatever the cause.” In the same paper this morning appeared the funereal head-line : “ The Dying Days of Flax,” and one almost hears the dirge of the phormium leaves, creaking in a forsaken swamp, far, faraway. The wages awarded by the Arbitration Court have been largely blamed for the troubles of millers, but an investigation may show that the excessive royalties levied by owners of flax fields have tended to overload the industry. When the fibre went up to a species of boom price the royalties, naturally, were proportionately increased. Flax then fascinated some not 100 prudent men of enterprise ; they had visions of wealth untold, and agreed to give for their raw material a price based on the exceptional quotations for the finished product. This value fell, and straightway the manufacturers, who had been working on a short margin, found themselves disagreeably embarrassed. We understand that an impressive number of these cases could be cited, and it is surely unreasonable to fasten the bulk of the blame on the wages. Men who took grazing land assessed on an assumption that lofty prices would prevail for wool over an indefinite period were similarly smitten; the “royalty” rather than the wages paid to musterers, shearers, and other workers, chiefly struck them. It has been suggested that a Royal Commission should be appointed “to enquire into the true state of affairs,” but we think that the truth can be discovered in this case without the aid of a Royal Commission. The Hon. A. W. Hogg has promised to bring the matter before, the Government, but the Minister should be able, through the officers of various departments, to promptly get a list of the causes that have brought some sickness to the flax industry. It is absurd to talk of “death” just yet.”