FLAX GROWING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4526, 4 November 1930, Page 4

FLAX GROWING.

IXIMISTBY nEI > 11ESBED

A WORLD REVIEW. There may lie lamentations in New Zealand over the state of the flax industry, hut it would seem as it! elsewhere similar industries are in just as had a plight, it not in a worse one. This ean 'he gathered from a perusal of the report of the reeent meetings of the Advisory iCbniinittee on Vegetable Fibres, which the Imperial Institute (London) set up. For instance, sisalgrowing has during recent years become a very efficient industry in Kenya and Tanganyika, in Africa. In the last three years the output lias Iboeu doubled, rising from 25,- (!()(> to 50,000 tons. On the bestmanaged farms the cost of production has worked out at about £25 per ton, the average being £2B per ton. But at the present: time. the. price which sisal hemp is fetching averages only from £2l to £23 per ton. Unless prices improve, the industry is threatened with extinction during the next three years. At present replacement, cultivation, and the control of weeds cannot be undertaken owing to the lack' of funds, and the outlook is black.

The same sorry tale is told of the industry in Mauritius, where once the hemp industry held great, possibilities. Falling prices for hemp have necessitated the closing down of the industry, it being impossible to produce fibre at a paying price. Sisal, a central American fibre plant, used to be grown to a very large extent in the Bahamas, where it supplied the principal agricultural industry. But of late years the. output has sunk to an almost negligible quantity and threatens to become extinct. Yet sisal can be grown and is grown on every island in the Bahamas. It thrives on the rocky soil of the islands, is drought and hurricane-re-sisting, and requires little or no skill in cultivation. The Bahamas are close to the big North American market, and yet the industry, unless some radical, improvement is soon effected, seems doomed.

One wonders whether this tale of misfortunes may not help New Zealand llax, phormium, to come into its own. The meeting certainly displayed interest in the production of phormium in the Dominion, and sought furl her particulars of the Dominion Government's offer of a bonus of .£.10,000 for a suitable machine for extracting fibre. It was pointed out that no really satisfactory machine had yet been devised for the purpose. Research on phormium fibre was decided upon.

Flax production in Australia was ■also one of the matters considered. The climate and labour conditions were considered to be against success in this direction, in spite of the optimism of the promoters of some Australian llax companies. The committee expressed the opinion Unit efforts should be made to grow I lap: in Englandfand ‘lreland. The aim would he, not to replace either the cheapest Russian grades or the highelass Belgian products which were imported, but to produce a fibre of medium grade which would meet some of the requirements of Irish and Scottish spinners, eventually producing a llax which would supply the needs of a large proportion of the mills.

As a result of the committee’s deliberations, the whole question of the world’s demand for fibre will be tlioroughly considered. New Zealand flax will have its merits discussed and weighed, and possibly it will be found to be an efficient substitute for sisal and hemp from other parts of the Empire where the industry has languished. In that prospect there is a ray of hope for (lax-growers in the (Dominion.