IMPORTANT DEAL IN HEMP INDUSTRY.

Shannon News, 10 June 1927, Page 2

IMPORTANT DEAL IN HEMP INDUSTRY.

NEW COMPANY ACQUIRES MIRANUI INTERESTS. £1,300,000 FROM FIBRE IN TWENTY YEARS An announcement In last week's Mercantile Gazette of the registration of a new company to take over the well-known Miranui (lax-mill and flax lands has created a good deal of interest In this district, marking as It does another important step forward in an Industry of great value to the Manawatu. The new company, which has a capital -of £95,000, is to be known as Miranui Ltd. and has purchased the flaxmilling and flaxgrowing interests of the A. and L. Seifert Flaxdressing Co. Ltd. Several of the original shareholders in the old company retain large interests in the new concern.

Among the new shareholders, however, are several large firms who have hitherto been intimately connected with the export side of the flax in. dustry over a long pefiod of years. The property purchased comprises 3105 acres of land, nearly a.ll under flax, and the well-known Miranui flax-mill, which is th e largest and most up-to-date in the Dominion. Situated near Shannon on the eastern side of the Main Trunk railway the Miranui mill has always been an object of interest to travellers, as has also the magnificent area of flax stretching away to the horizon on the other side of the line. Miranui started stripping in August, 1907, and during the twenty years of its existence has dressed 40.500 tons of hemp, which is approximately 11 per cent, of the total Dominion output for that period, representing a value In hemp and its by-pro-ducts of about £1,300,000.

Mr Alfred Seifert designed the mill, and it was then a new departure in construction and lay-out. Up to that time all the hemp had been turned out from small mills usually or oneBtripper capacity and • never more than two. It was generally considered that it would be impossible to make a large mill pay, but Mr Seifert can safely claim, that he overcame all the -difficulties confronting his big enterprise, and economies were effected by large scale production which made Miranui the most Important flax-producing plant in the Dominion.

To show the value of the industry to the Manawatu district, it need: only be stated that when working at it’s fullest capacity, this one mill lias employed as many as 280 hands.

The original shareholders in the A. and L. Seifert Co. were : Messrs. Alfred and Louis Seifert, Hope Gibbons, C. J. Monro, M. Cohen and. J. P. Innes. Mr. Alfred Seifert has been managing-director continuously since the company commenced operations, and he retains that position in the new company, while his only son, Mr. Herbert A. Seifert, who has been mil] manager for the past two years, will hold a similar position with Miranui, Ltd.

The A. and L. Seifert Company have not disposed of their agricultural holdings, consisting of some 1300 acres of land and they will continue to work this.area as a separate organ. Isation.

Considerable significance is attached to the personnel of the new company in that it shows the great confidence displayed in the future of the industry by business houses, which hitherto have only been connected with the sale and export of hemp, and it is anticipated that their advent into the growing and manufacturing side should have an important bearing on the progress of this valuable industry.

For some time past Mr. Alfred Seifert has taken a keen Interest in the cultivation of flax, and has spent a great deal of time and money in experimental work with the object of discovering the best commercial varieties and the best methods of cultivation.

It is his intention to devote still more time to this side of the industry in the future as it has always been his contention that flax-cultivutlon can be put on a commercially profitable basis. Although magnificent crops of fibre are being produced from the natur-ally-grown areas in the Manawatu, Mr. Seifert believes that there are yet undiscovered potentialities of hemp, and its by-products are so great that the present areas will not be sufficient for the demand, and flax will, in the not far distant future, be grown as scientifically and cropped a a regularly as wheat.