The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 288, 7 December 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1870.

, — — The Commissioners appointed by his Honor the Superintendent, at the request of the Provincial Council to inquire into the best means of furthering the industrial interests of the province, have comraeuced their labors, and at a meeting held on Monday last, they decided upou inviting all persous who are capable of so doing, to furnish information on all such subjects as are likely to engage the attention of the Commission, the personnel of which, comprising, as it does, tlie uames of Mr. Shephard, Dr. Williams, and Captain Rough, is sufficient to guarantee a thorough and satisfactory carrying out of the work they have taken in hand, and there can be no doubt that the report they will bring up at the termination of their labors will prove an incentive to I many to direct their attention to industries which are yet unknown amongst us except byname, while the information it will contain must necessarily prove highly advantageous to those who have ( already taken the lead in turning to account the natural products of the country. The Commissioners having invited communications on this subject, we may be pardoned if we call their attention to a letter addressed to the Neio Zealand Herald on the subject of co-operative flax mills, which we have perused with much interest, aud a brief summary of which we will give here. The writer, after premising that the co-operative system has, iv many instances, proved a success in England, suggests that such organizations should be tried in New Zealand ; not, however, consisting entirely of workmen, as experience has proved that permanent success can be better ensured by an absolute exclusion of class interests. There are two ways, he says, in which this has been carried out; one, by forming .a Joint Stock Company of the original proprietors, and those who, under the present system, would be the employees; the other by the. capitalists retaining sole pos- 1 session and control, but granting an I equitable division of the ! extra profits amongst the employees the same as though they were shareholders. In either case the practical difference in the working of the bussness lies in the mode of renumerating capital and labor, and the distribution of certain extra profits, which, it is to be assumed, would be realised by the arrangement. Thus, the owner of all capital, either sunk or floating, actually employed in, or at the service of, the coucern, should receive a fixed interest for the same under certain conditions a moderate rate of pay being credited to allemployees, after which all profit which may remain over and above the sum necessary for defraying the expenses named, should be equitably divided between capital and labor in a manner which is explained at some length. After entering into further particulars, and quoting instances in which this plan has been found to work successfully in England, the letter gees on to allude to a still further advantage which would accrue from such a system in the colony, but which, for obvious reasons, cannot attend it in the old country, and this is certainly not the least attractive feature of the proposed scheme. Tt is as follows: — "All hands having a local interest would strive to become owners of land near the mill, the cultivation of which would be a profitable occupation during those winter months hitherto spent in partial idleness and misery, caused by the closing of the flax mills. The problem of how to induce persons to settle on, and, cultivate, the waste lands would thus be nearing solution, as the mills would have growing up around them a settlement of industrious people, who would none the less continue

to provide it with workmen, since on its very existeuce depended much of their own success." Having thus taken a cursory glance at the letter before us, the suggestions contained io which are well worthy of consideration, the more so that they emanate from one who apparently has had some practical experience of the working of such systems in England, we would next direct attention to the desirability of establishing manufactures in New Zealand for working up the flax after it has passed through the dressing machine. At present we are pursuing the same system with this valuable fibre that we are content to do with our wool, namely, to send the raw material home, and then to import it again in its manufactured state, thus paying double freight, commission, and insurance on au article which we might well turn to account in the colony, without incurring all this ex- , pense. In the matter of wool bales and corn sacks alone, a large drain on the resources of the country might be avoided, were we to manufacture them here instead of subjecting them to the extravagant process indicated above, before we have the means of packing our wool or sending our corn to market ; then with regard to rope, although in some places in New Zealand this article is manufactured on a small scale, we actually send our flax to England, there to be adulterated, if we may use the expression, with just enough of ihe Manilla hemp to enable it to be sold as the produce of that place, and then import it again to do the work for which outown staple is perfectly well fitted without the admixture of any foreign substanc. By combining with the flax mills that sooner or later will be scattered over the whole colony the meaus of manulacturing the raw material, we should retain within our / boundaries the money that now oozes out of the country, in small amounts it is true, but the total of which would be sufficient to remunerate a large army of laborers. So much of our space has been occupied in referring to the single article of flax, that we are unable now to mention several of the other products of the country, that could, by judicious treatment, be turned to accouut in such a manner as to yield profitable returns to those who might be disposed to devote their energies to the development of what are familiarly known as "local industries," but we shall return to the subject again at a future time. Meanwhile, we wish the Commissioners | every success in the work they have entered upon, as we feel sure that results of no small importance are dependent upon their investigations.