HEMP INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 897, 14 February 1930, Page 10

HEMP INDUSTRY

STATE OFFERS £IO,OOO FOR IMPROVED METHODS

NEW PROCESSES WANTED From Our Resident IZcnorter WELLINGTON, Today. The Government, by notice in last night’s Gazette, offers to pay a bonus or bonuses of £IO.OOO for major improvements in the methods of extracting and dressing the fibre from the New Zealand hemp plant, pliormium tenax. The offer is subject to the following conditions; (1) The machine or process in regard to which the whole or any part of the bonus is to be paid shall be recommended by a committee set up by the Government, and shall be approved by the Government (2) The £IO.OOO will be paid wholly or in part for a commercially practicable process of extracting and dressing the fibre of New Zealand hemp, whether by machinery or otherwise, whereby there shall be obtainable (a) a greatly improved quality of fibre marketable at a higher price; (b) a considerably greater quantity of strong white fibre a ton of green leaf; (c) a substantial reduction in the cost of producing the fibre. Provided that in determining the amount of the bonus to be paid for any such process, due regard shall be had to the rate of any royalty required to be paid by millers for the use of such process, and no bonus whatever will be paid (1) unless the improved process will enable the net returns from an efficient fiaxmill to be increased bv at least 15 per cent.; or (2) if ihe amount of any such royalty will absorb the whole or* substantially the whole of the increased net return above referred to. (3) Anv r pnli< , an t for the bonus must have fulfilled the following conditions

at the time of application; (a) The machine or process in question must have extracted the fibre from not less than 500 tons of green leaf; (b) the fibre extracted from the 500 tons of green leaf must have been graded by a Government grader, and not less than 90 per cent, of such fibre must have reached a grade not lower than “good fair.”

(4) Applications for the bonus must be addressed to the Director General, Department of Agriculture, "Wellington, and must reach him not later than noon on November 30. 1931. clearly marked "Application.” The Government will appoint a committee of not less than five persons, of whom two shall be New Zealand hempmillers. to examine and investigate the applications and processes.