The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1886. WOOLLEN FACTORIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1411, 19 November 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1886. WOOLLEN FACTORIES.

It is very satisfactory to note that the Ashburton Woollen Factory has very successfully passed through the first year of its existence—generally speaking the most trying period in the career of any manufacturing concern. The progress made by the institution during the past twelve months evidently far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of shareholders, to judge from the hearty ecomiums passed by them upon the zeal and ability of the directorate at the annual meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Considerable improvements and extensions have been made in the buildings and machinery. As for the goods manufactured by the Company, they are everywhere praised for their excellence, but, as the Chairman remarked, it is easy enough to make the best of goods if the cost of production be no consideration. It will, however, have been noticed that the directors are confident that during the ensuing year the Factory will turn out materials of the same high class character as hitherto, and at a very substantial rate of profit to the Company. We think it would be well for the Directors of the Company to consider the question of extending the market for their goods, as the number of factories now established in the colony will certainly lead to very severe competition here. A Dunedin paper, speaking of the recent annual meeting of shareholders in the Mosgiel Woollen Company sajs: “ The success of the Mosgiel Company has led to the establishment of several more woollen factories, one or two of which are proving remunerative though none has attained the success of the parent institution. Kaiapoi and Roslyn have been followed by Oamaru, Timaru, Ashburton, Wellington, Auckland, and now Mataura. Up to a certain point this competition was highly desirable and an unmixed benefit, but we venture to think that there are more woollen mills established than the Colony can possibly support, and that the public interest will eventually suffer from the excessive competition that has set in. For the time no doubt it is pleasant enough to be able to buy woollens under cost price, but it is not in the end to the advantage of the community for colonial capital to be employed in producing goods in excess of the demand, and to disappear in unprofitable enterprise. We doubt whether the shareholders in the new factories have considered the advantages which accrue from long experience and magnitude of operations, and we fear that a good deal of money will be lost before the market is restored to a healthy condition.” We think, with the writer of the foregoing, that severe competition in the colony will be a sure result of the establishment of so many factories, but with prudence and the same careful attention to the quality of its goods as has been given in the past, there is no reason why the Ashburton Factory should not more than hold its own. The question of finding new outlets for its manufactures is a very important one, and we trust the Directors of the Company will lose no opportunity of establishing and extending trade with other countries.