THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1907. THE FIBRE INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 5 April 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1907. THE FIBRE INDUSTRY.

The importance to New Zealand of its fibre industry is only, practically, just beginning to be realised. The more information bearing on the production of the fibre that can be afforded those engaged in the trade the better. In this connection a very valuable report has been furnished to the Minister for Lands by a wellknown flax-miller of Palmerston North, Mr M. Cohen, who has been on a visit of inspection to the Philippine Islands. In the course of a lengthy and detailed report Mr Cohen warns millers and others against the opinion that as foreign manufacturers must have New Zealand hemp it is only necessary to "sit tight" find dictate conditions. Mr Cohen speaks ; at length of his visit to the experimental stations in Manila, where he inspected the whole process from start to finish, and goes on to say that Nature has been singularly bountiful in endowing the Philippine Ai'chipelago with indigenious fibre plants in both number and variety. Foremost amongst these are Manila hemp or abaca, cotton, pineapple fibre, rami?, pandm, burn, nipa, and rattan, all of which are used more or less extensively throughout the islands either commercially or domestically. As a whole the fibre products of the islands constitute their most prolific source of wealth, the production of Manila hemp being indeed the most important industry at the present time, both from a financial and commercial point of view. Abaca is strictly a Philippine product, and attempts to introduce it to other parts of the world have failed. '

This is strange when it is considered j that the genus Musa or banana, , flourishes in nearly all tropical countries, and in general appearance there is nothing to distinguish the Musa textiles or hemp-producing banana from the Musa Paradisiaca or edible banana. In 1904 the record export of 125,000 tons of fibre was reached, and it was valued at £4,000,000, or 66 per cent, of the whole exports. Mr Cohen deals extensively with soil and cultivation,and points out that the Manila hemp plant requires moist, warm soil. He describes the harvesting process and the process of fibre extraction. In speaking of the latter he describes it as a most primitive method. The apparatus is a simple crude mechanism, consisting of a hinged knif« pressed down on a block and the strips of material are pulled through under the knife. "Classification" is the only term that can be used to describe what we in New Zealand call "grading." The qualities commercially recognised are superior, good current, fair current, seconds, reds and browns. There is no arbitrary standard fixed, but each exporter is apparently a law unto himself as to what quality constitutes these several grades. "There is no semblance of a grading systsni," says Mr Cohen, "and merchants do not view a local application of a similar principle to the New Zsaland grading with any favour." Mr Cohen goes on to say that it is no more possible to compare Manila hemp of good average quality with New Zealand hemp in appearance than it is to compare silk with sackcloth. During the past few | years Manila hemp has continuously retrograded until not more than 5 per cent, to 8 par cent, of the total production can now be classed as "good fair" and about 85 per cent, classed as "seconds and inferior." "That Manila hemp is retrograding in quality and causing much dissatisfaction I and comment should be seized as our I opportunity," says Mr Cohen, "and the realisation of a better all-round quality, combined with an impartial and perfected grading system, should go far to improve the tone of our market."