THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2435, 30 May 1922, Page 3

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

An 'opinion that the flax industry of New Zealand is doomed to extinction was*,advanced by Mr Donald Grant, a prominent Bay of Plenty farmer, in conversation with a Manawatu Standard representative. In supporting his own contention he said that in his own district hundreds of acres of good flax were being burned off in order to convert the swamps into farming land. On account of the ruinously high freights the millers were not able to offer land owners more than 2s a ton for green flax, and with such small returns offering, farmers were not going to keep good swamp lands for the purpose of growing the fibre. In order to get heavy fibre, the flax must be allowed to attain a four to five years’ growth. Flax was being cpt in the' Manawatu at about three years, but this did not return - a heavy weight of fibre. In short, there was not enough money in the industry, and on this account some of the mills in the Bay of Plenty were closing down and many of the flax swamps being burned offr The same conditions, as far as he could gather prevailed throughout the whole of the Dominion.