THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1128, 2 August 1913, Page 3

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

A slight improvement has been noticeable in the hemp forwarded for shipment during the past month from Manawatu mills. Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Marlborough, West Coast, and Canterbury fibre was still of good quality, the millers in these districts having apparently consistently worked to a good-fair standard, and in some cases to a fine grade, being assisted in this by having a supply of good leaf. In many instances in these districts the leaf has been sorted into different lengths and the resulting fibre baled separately. This procedure not only means better and more uniformity in the baled fibre but necessarily makes it of higher commercial value, in addition to which there is less waste in the milling process, a saving which more than compensates for the slightly increased cost of production.

Hemp from Auckland and Southland Provinces continues to be of poor quality. This has been due largely to inferior stripping, washing, and bleaching, and in some cases to unsatisfactory scutching. It is to be regretted that a high precentage of the hemp produced in the Auckland Province this season has been of a low standard. Up to the end ot May only 66 bales of good-fair were milled out of a total output of about 4,000 bales. Facing the hanks has been very noticeable this season at Auckland, but keen work on the part of the Auckland grader has had the effect of checking this deception.

While Southland millers have been considerably handicapped this season by unfavourable weather, millers in other parts of the Dominion, more especially those in the North Island, have experienced excellent weather-con-ditions. True, periodical storms have temporarily retarded operations, but unusual spells of fine weather during the present winter have enabled production to expand to an unusual degree ; in fact, the winter output of fibre this season is of a record nature. This is very gratifying in view of the good values ruling for phormium - fibre on oversea markets.

The grub continues to work havoc in some phormium areas, making it practically impossible for millers working the affected flax to secure a good-fair grade, while the broken character of the fibre leads to an unsatisfactory increase in the quantity of tow produced ; the character of this residual product is under the circumstances also weaker.

The tow and stripper slips coming to hand are in a very unsatisfactory condition, and in many cases have to be condemned for shipment. In only a few instances are these by-products prepared as they should be. In several instances millers are taking steps to improve their methods of production by building more modern mills and by installing improved appliances. Two thoroughly up-to-date mills have been erected in the Manawatu district this season, and two are being constructed in the Wairarapa district.—-Mr W. H. Ferries in the journal of the Department of Agriculture.