THE FLAX INDUSTRY.
(From the Lytteltan Times.) The development of the manufacture of phormium tenax affords a very reassuring prospect for the Colony. Though the hopes of many who have entered upon the busineaß with extravagant expectations or insufficient knowledge have been and will yet, perhaps, be doomed to disappointment, it may be fairly assumed that the new industry affords reasonable expectation of fair profit when undertaken and followed up with care and attention. Nothing, perhaps, tends so much to injure the prospects of a new industry as extravagant expectation. When the public begin to think that any particular kind of business is a high road to fortune, it generally proves to be a sure' road to ruin, simply because foolish people rush into it without knowledge to guide them or prudence to restrain and govern their actions. There is some reason to fear that this will soon be the case with flax. It is only common kindness on our part, therefore, to point out that the manufacture of flax is subject to exactly the same rules as every other colonial business in which the employment of labour enters largely. Bad management, inattention, or miscalculation, will entail loss as easily in the flax as any other trade. Indeed, it may be said perhaps more easily, because so much depends upon the skill and clever contrivanco of the pioneers in a new business. Still, in spite of the particular failures and losses that have taken place, and may still occur, it can now be safely assumed that the manufacture of New Zealand flax is an established fact, and that it is started on a scale sufficiently large to attract and ensure the attention of the home manufacturers. The latter point is a matter of the greatest importance, because, for the last twenty years the colonists have been told again and again, that until the home manufacturers could obtain sufficiently large quantities, and could feel sure of being constantly supplied with increasing shipments, they would never take the trouble of experimentalising with the view of altering their machinery for the purpose of working the material. The difficulty with regard to quantity has now been overcome. Where five hundred tons were exported last year there probably will be five thousand this, and ten thousand the year after. We may safely assume therefore that the manufacturers of England will soon set their wits to work to solve the problem which has hitherto baffled all who have attempted it. And we can hardly doubt that the difficulty will soon be overcome which has prevented New Zealand flax from being used in the manufacture of the finer sort 8 of textile fabrics. Hitherto there have been insuperable difficulties in the way. Though it has been conclusively proved over and over again, that the fibre, when properly prepared, is fine enough to make the best cambric, no method has yet been found equal to preparing it for spinning purposes. The demand which has now been created for the fibre is for a totally different purpose. A large special demand has been created by the spread of submarine telegraphy. Tens of thousands of miles of submarine cable are now being made, or are likely to be made very shortly. The wires in every case have to be enclosed with fibre of some sort, and it is found that New Zealand flax answers very well for the purpose. Even if it were fit for nothing better than this, there is every prospect of an increasing demand continuing for many years, as submarine telegraphy is yet in its infancy, and is daily coming into greater public favor. Before many years the earth will be girdled with the electric cable, new lines will be multiplied, and the old ones will require , renewal. But the fibre is fit for far higher uses than this, and the problem how to adapt it for the spinner will in all probability soon be discovered. When this is achieved its value will be largely increased. But as this secret is still iai nubibus, it will be well for the colonial manufacturer to dismiss such visions from his mind, and to realise the fact that he has a business to deal with which requires ingenuity, attention, and economy, to make it yield a profit. It would indeed be a pity to see an industry which promises so much for the colony, destroyed prematurely by the too sanguine views of its promoters. Under the most favorable circumstances, success in the manufacture of flax depends chiefly upon the good management and skill of those engaged in the trade. That it is quite a mistake to suppose otherwise, can be proved conclusively by the experience of those who have already embarked in the trade. It is far from being our purpose to discourage any one from entering upon an industry which we quite believe will become of great importance to the colony. But nothing is so likely seriously to check it, as extravagant hopes and foolish expectations founded, not upon facts, but upon the wishes of those who know little of the matter. The public, as a rule, are slow to move in a new direction, but, when once awakened, are apt to move with a rush. It would be a pity to see them led away by the force of imagination into thinking that flax manufacture is a certain road to speedy fortune. As a rule, notions of this kind areas dangerous and expensive as they are mistaken. We have little doubt that the manufacture of flax will afford occupation and remunerative employment to hundreds, and in the course of time to thousands of people in the colony, and, as little, that it will not make what is commonly called " the fortune " of one in a thousand.
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Southland Times, Issue 1214, 22 February 1870, Page 4
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968THE FLAX INDUSTRY. Southland Times, Issue 1214, 22 February 1870, Page 4
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