THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3707, 22 October 1927, Page 3

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

EXPERIMENTING IN BLEACHING. In replying to the toast of “The Commercial Interests of Foxton,” at Thursday night’s Chamber of Commerce social evening, Mr. John Ross touched on the flax industry and stated that recently he had been in conversation with Mr. Sutty, of Sutty Bros., men who had probably done more for the hemp industry than anyone else by the invention of mechanical means of treatment of the green leaf. Mr. Sutty had informed him that he was at present engaged on a. process of bleaching the fibre to avoid the delay that was incurred by having to “paddock” the green fibre. He mentioned that recently he had sent a hank of unbleached fibre to Germany to have it bleached and it had, just been returned to him pure white, hut with the dust still in it, showing that it had not been scutched. The fibre was just as strong as before it had been bleached and was not impaired in any way. When New Zealand could bleach flax like that, said Mr. Ross, there was a big future before the hemp industry. With the cultivation of the green leaf he saw no reason why another six strippers could not he kept going in Foxton.