OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 30 March 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

SURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. N«. 23. [All Rights Reserved.] (By K. J. FAMES). WELLINGTON: A PROVINCE PROGRESSIVE. THE FLAX INDUSTRY. Touching Foxton, one comes upon an important flax centre. The busy punts, and along the roads the fibre-laden drays, the whirring mill .machinery and the big rope works, all bear evidence of the essential part which phormium tenax contributes to the prospcrily nf tl;c district. If we take a line from Waikanie, in a north-easterly direction to Linton, and back to Foxton, an area i-; embraced ' mills operate. It, is estimated that a single-stripper will turn out 7% tons of finished fibre in a 48-hours week. Just now the price of flax is low —£l7 10s per ton in Wellington at the time of writing. But at that price the 7 1 /; tons to each single-stripper equals £4725 per week. The year 11)07 was boom-time, and Wellington district sent out 13,472 tons, or 44% per cent, of the Dominion's exports. The price then was £29 per ton, the highest since the year 1867, when it was £33 per ton. In the year ended June 30, 1008. the district output fell to 10,094 tons, and in 190!) to 9330 tons.. It may be remembered that in a recent arbitration case it was contended that this falling-off was in consequence upon which one six-stripper mil!, o:ic three-stripper mill, and 27 single-stripper of the wages award which had been made operative in this district. On behalf of "the other side," however, it was shown that the lessened manufacture had been general throughout the Dominion; the exports having been 30,013 tons in 1907, 21,501 tons in 1908, and 13,310 in 1909, and that Wellington district's contributions to the quantities was 44% per cent, in 1907, 40Vi per cent, in 1908, and 70 per cent, in 1909. It would appear that in flax, as in other products, the market price largely governs the quantity cut, for when values are abnormally high, as in 1007, small mills spring up everywhere, and it pays to cut patches which would not make profitable working at present prices. There has been a good deal of friction on the question of royalty as between growers and millers, and on the question of wages as between millers and men. The royalty subject is rather interesting, and it may not be generally known that it is the grower, and not (he miller, who reaps the lion's share of the profits when London market prices go skyward. Thus the scale on the Moutoa estate, near Foxton, provides that if the price in London be £2O per ton the miller pays 3s royalty on grci'n flax, which amounts to £1- 5s Gd per ton on the fibre. That leaves the miller' £lB 14s 6d per ton. But if the London price were £3O, the royalty to be paid to the grower goes up to 30s per ton green, equal to £7 4s 6d per ton of fibre, leaving the miller (when the London price is £3O) a balance of £22 15= 6d per ton. If the London price were £4O, the miller's balance would be £27 5s per ton, the other £l2 15s per ton going to the grower for royalty. The men reckon they work, on an average, nine months a year, and that during that period, taking broken time into consideration, their wages pan out, all round, at about £2 Ss per week. In the work of producing the finished fibre from the WaikanaeJL/inton-Foxton area about GOO men are- nnployed. But thereafter the rope factory, the shipping, the grading and other necessary handlings give em ployment to many more. It will thus be seen that the market price of flax counts as a material factor in the wellbeing of a large number of people, and the 'change reports form a subject of daily comment over the tea-table. "Flax is up 10s a ton," the wives of the workers will remark to one another, or "Flax is down," as the case may be. Unlike) timber, the flax industry is here to stay, and so long as the seasons are favorable and the demand on the open market holds good, so long will the flax-

swamp area continue to hold a prosperous place in the Dominion's rural activities.

WHERE THE COW LUXURIATES. From the sand-dunes on the seashore between the Rangitikci and the Manawatu river.s tlio country opens up through light soils into valleys, and flats, and swamps, which increase in usefulness as one proceeds inland. But it is right in the region of the Oroua that one must look for cow-country at its best. The farmers there are not shrinking from paying high prices, and it must be hoped that their confidence in the butterfat industry and in the district will not. prove misplaced. At Glen Oroua the soil is rather light in places, but the peatswamp land stands the dry weather very well. An estate of 800 acres was cut up into ahout 70-aere farms, and during the past year or so they have realised £35 per acre. At Mu'ngawhata, two miles from Oroua Bridge, a farm of 130 acres (of which ~>o acres was in bush and some waste) was carrying GO cows, 20 weaners and 5 horses, and the owner had just got rid of some sheep. A few months ago 50 acres was sold in this locality at £'so per acre. On the land between Manawhata and Glen Oroua the farmers talk in glowing terms of the productiveness of the soil. "There's nothing hotter in the world," was the enthusiastic declaration. If these properties had been in Hie hands of agents for sale their virtues could not have been extolled more eloquently, but the writer was assured that there were only a couple of farms on the market. This peat land works up beautifully under cultivation, anil the general testimony was that jt would grow mangels and maize "till further orders." At Rongotea there is an important factory, which draws its suppliers direct from a rich surrounding area, and the strings of milk-carts to he seen until late in the morning any day during the season give 'ample proof of the Cow's firm establishment.