FLAX PRODUCTION

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4414, 13 February 1930, Page 2

FLAX PRODUCTION

.UtUHiO FOR IMPROVEMENTS. CONDITIONS ()!*’. GOVERNMENT DEFER, Wellington, February 11. 'flic conditions under which inventors id' an improved method of product ion of commercial flax may secure a bonus of .Clo,ooo from the (iovermnent have been framed b,v the Department of Agriculture, and are announced by the Minister, lion. G. W. Forbes.

The offer is open till 301 h November, 1031, and it is intended that as soon as possible after that time a committee of nol less than live — of whom two shall lie New Zealand hemp millers—shall open the applications and investigate such of the machines or processes as it "deems worthy of trial. The committee will make recoin mend a turns to the Government as to the payment of tile'bonus, having regard jo the amount of royalty, if any, specified by the inventor, who is required to indicate this point in the application. The major condition of the offer are as follow: —

The £IO,OOO bonus will he paid wholly or in part for a commercially practicable . process of extracting and dressing the New Zealand hemp plant whether by machinery or otherwise , whereby shall he obtainable: (a) A greatly improved, quality of fibre marketable at a higher price; (b) a considerably greater quantity of strong white fibre per ton of green leaf; (c) a substantial reduction in the cost of producing the fibre (in this connection the committee will have regard to the amount of royalty which millers may have to pav "a the process, ami no bonus will he paid unless it can lie satisfactorily demonstrated that the improved process in comparison with the best of present methods will en-

able nit returns from an efficient llaxmill to be increased by at least: 15 per cent, allowing for the royalty payment). Another important condition at.taehed to the proposed bonus is that, any process submitted for consideration-must have been used to extract the fibre from not less than 50(1 tons of green leaf, which fibre has been graded by a Government grader, and at least 90 per cent, graded not lower than “good fair.’’