THE HEMP QUOTATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 920, 19 November 1910, Page 3

THE HEMP QUOTATIONS.

ARE THE HIGH COMMISSIONER’S CABLES reliable.

A reply given in the House of Representatives on Thursday by the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister for Agriculture, to Mr Newman, M.P. for Manawatu, who asked whether it was true that the prices of New Zealand Hemp cabled from London by the High Commissioner are inaccurate, raises the question as to whether those interested in the industry would not be better without these particular quotations. ' Mr Newman said that the importance of accuracy and reliability in the reports cabled by the High Commissioner in connection with prices of hemp in Loudon was evident, from the fact that the majority of millers in the flax districts pay royally for green flax at per ton based on the London market prices as quoted by the High Commissioner, and if the prices had been wrongly quoted it would mean that the royalty paid by millers during the current month would be about 3s per ton too much. He trusted that in the interests of the flax industry the Minister would take steps to have this important matter inquired into without delay, with a view to making any alterations required in order that nothing but authentic information with regard to the state of the Home markets might be cabled out to the Dominion. The Hon. T. Mackenzie, in reply, said that it would be inadvisable for small millers to base their prices on the High Commissioner’s telegrams. They ought to have other means upon which to base their prices. The telegrams came out simply as information to the public. He found that the High Commissioner’s quotations had not varied from other quotations in anything like the degree Mr Newman stated. The High Commissioner’s reports must be gathered from a number of sources, necessarily. It was impossible for him to have the same grip of trade as those in the trade. Thus it was that the millers should base their contracts on the reports of those who handled the article at Home.