FLAX-MILLING INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3107, 4 February 1909, Page 5

FLAX-MILLING INDUSTRY.

! MINISTER FOR LABOUR WAITED UPON. By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, February 3. Tinse engaged in the flax-milling industry in the Dominion are not at present satisfied with their trade and its prospects, arid are anxious that the Government should do something to improve it. Mr P. H. Robinson, Secretary of the Flaxmillers' Union at Foxton, to-day waited on the Minister of Labour (the Hon. A. W. Hosrg) in reference to the present state of the industry, and after laying before the Minister certain facts in connection with it, asked for Government intervention or aid.

Mr Robinson submitted to the Minister information to show that the present depressed condition of the industry was clearly due, to a very large extent, to the huge increase of that for some time patfc had been charged by the owners of flax-growing country. The royalties during the last few years had been increased at an enormous rate, with the result that flaxmillers in many instances were working almost at a loss, and that mills had to be closed down. There was a desire on the part of those engaged in the industry that a Commission be set up and full enquiries be made into the cause of the depression, in a similar way to what was proposed in reference to the sawmilling industry. The Hon. Mr Hogg asked whether the wages which were being paid to the hands employed in the mills were, in Mr Robinson's opinion, responsible for the unremunerative condition of affairs.

Mr Robinson, in reply, said that the men were satisfied that the award made in their case was an extremely reasonable one. The wages paid were based on the cost of Jiving, and the best authorities engaged in the industry admitted that the hands were receiving only a reasonable amount lor their services. In proof of this the speaker quoted statements made by Messrs Seifert and John Stansell, two of the best authorities in this part of the Dominion. The Minister, in the course of his reply, said that he recognised the great value of the flax-ir/dustry, ar.d agreed that those men who had invested largely in machinery and plant should be adequa f ely recompensedjfcr their enterprise. It was much to be regrelted that the industry, for a long time past, had been in anything but a flourishing condition. The causes of this present state of things demanded an inquiry of some kind, and if a reme iv cculd Ire found, either by means of a full inquiry or bv legislation, in thj intares.s of the whole Dominion, it was most desirable that something should be done. He would submit the matter to the earnest consideration of the Government as soon as possble, because the present stale of ( the labaur market demanded attention, especially as it effected one of the chief industries of the Dominion. He would see, without any unnecessary delay, whether something could not be done to stimulate the industry.