THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9188, 10 September 1908, Page 4

THE HEMP INDUSTRY.

The prospects ior the flaxmilling industry at present are anything but bright, and there is no apparent disposition on the part of a great many mill-owners to start operations for the season. A few of the mills in the South Island started at the beginning of August, but very little hemp has come to hand so far. At present there are about half-a dozen mills in Southland working, whereas last season as many as thirty-six were operating. The conditions at present governing the hemp manufacturing industry are so restrictive that, in very many cases, it would simply mean out and out loss to run

the mills, and that is why so many are idle. For one thing, the royalties which landowners are asking for the right to cut flax are considered as being too high, and that, combined with ruling prices of hemp, make it impossible for the mills to pay. Th« margin in the relative market prices of fair grade and good fair grade hemp is so small as to otter no inducement to millers to turn out the better class article. Generally speaking, the prospects this year for the hemp industry, in the South Island, at any rate, afe anything but promising.