HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 496, 19 October 1909, Page 3

HEMP INDUSTRY.

IN THE PHILIPPINES,

OTHER PRODUCTS TO BE

CULTIVATED

Planters in the Philippines, says a correspondent, have suffered considerably through labourers breaking their contracts. So much has this been the case that Acting-Governor-General Forbes has prepared an executive order that will tend in the future to protect employers of labour from the breaking Of contracts by their employees and seeking work in the Government service. This order prohibits the officers of the insular, provincial, and municipal governments from employing any labourer who has broken his contract with an employer, whether the conditions of the contract have been transportation expenses, which brings them an advance of money, or an advance of supplies. There will, however, be placed in the order ample protection to the labourer for an appeal in case he has - been unjustly treated by his employer. This order has been deemed necessary to prevent advantage being taken by the employee over the employer after the latter has been to considerable expense in obtaining proper labour. In your correspondent’s opinion, and he has been in regular communication with the Philippines for a considerable length of time, the time is not far off, provided prices do not boom during the 1909-1910 season, when the output of Manila will reach a maximum. Planters have realised during the recent slump that they made a mistake in confining their attention solely to hemp production when there were so many other lucrative products to be cultivated. The Philippine Bureau of Agriculture is impressing on planters the necessity of widening their outlook and not depending solely on one product. With the abnormal rise in rubber and the likelihood of a still greater future demand for this commodity there is likely to be a great development in its culture. Hemp represents 60 per cent of the archipelago’s total exports, but as far back as January last in some parts the abaca plant was actually being dug up and replaced by other plants yielding higher returns. In the report of the treasurer of the Moro province it is stated that the total acreage planted to staple agricultural products for the year ended June 30th last, exceeded that of the previous year. 01 the two principal export classes copra was in the ascendancy by a very large percentage. Hemp showed a falling off as compared to the previous fiscal year, due to low prices. The acreage planted to crops for local consumption, such as rice and corn, was at least 100 per cent greater than during the previous year. From authoritative sources the writer knows that many of the small Philippine hemp-growing firms have been practically ruined during the past year, and some of the large planting concerns have been, and are being, financed by merchants on the chance of a rise in the market, and are in reality in a very precarious financial position. At the same lime there is not likely to be any of supply of Manila hemp in the immediate future, although the prospects of a shortage next year or the year after may be anticipated by a rise during our present milling season.