THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1059, 4 February 1913, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

SOME REMINISCENCES.

Mr Robert Gardner, one of the pioneers of the hemp industry and the chairman of a commission that investigated the conditions of production and marketing, speaking at a function in Palmerston North last week, said that twenty-six years ago he would have been the first flaxmiller in the district, except that Mr John Rutherford commenced two days before him in Foxton. He received 10s a ton in London, shipping on his own account, and he drew or £6OO by every monthly mail. By his friends in Wellington he was considered a “flax king.” A day of awful reckoning came, however, when hemp came down to a very low figure. He bought up all he could in Foxton, but the prices went down to £9 15$ a ton. He bad spent eight or nine thou-

saud pounds on his mill at Paiako, and continued to dress flax when the other mills had stopped. Every mouth he was going to the bad, but he stuck tenaciously to it until he had to mortgage his place. But at last came the turn ; up went the flax, and he was once more a free man. His brother millers had suffered though. He did not think there was one present now who was milling at thdt time. He and his contemporaries had experienced bad times ; but they had also had good times, and there was every prospect of their continuing. The question arose, what was it that caused the ups and downs? He had watched them for years, and had kept a chart showing the amount ot Manila hemp that, from week to week, went out from the Philippines, and also showing the price of our own flax. It was most difficult for the millers to come to any definite conclusion as to why the prices jumped up and down—but he had a theory, which was that the millers were, to a certain extent, the cards in the bands of gamblers, and that it was the “bulls” and “bears” in the London market that caused the producers to lose or gain. When the price was low these operators paid for it; when It reached its lowest point, and they found that the consumers would not give more for it, they began to check. It was purely a speculative thing, because the output was so limited. Mr M&biu, when proposing the toast ot “The Flax Industry,” said he remembered when flax was at 17s 6d a ton at Oroua Bridge, and it was easier to buy a few tons for six month’s delivery than it was to buy up a line ot 50 tons on spot now. He was not going to say anything about the probable state of the flax market in the immediate future. He had prophesied the last rise, and was taken to task for it. The “bulls” aud “bears” were in existence in almost every industry of the world. They were in the flax market in Loudon, but he did not know that they were worse in that industry than in any other. He did not like to say that they were an evil, because they were very helpful to us at times. Ho buyer here was prepared to hold large quantities of flax, but the man in London was prepared to do it. At the back of the “bulls” and “bears” was the law of supply aud demand, aud they were guided by the harvest conditions throughout the world.