Wool Labelling Act Suggested To Protect Buyers From Low Quality

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 40, 23 April 1948, Page 6

Wool Labelling Act Suggested To Protect Buyers From Low Quality

Difficulties in the way of having a Wool Labelling Act introduced into New Zealand were mentioned by the Chairman of the New Zealand Wool Board, Mr N. R. Jameson, at the Board’s recent meeting with the Electoral Committee of the. meat and wool industry, states the Wool Board news service.

Mr G. B. Baker, M.B.E. (Cave) drew attention to the fact that while the Wool Board was spending money on wool promotion and publicity goods with as low a wool content as 15 per cent were being sold as wool, and consumers, not knowing how low the wool content was, were becoming dissatisfied. Mr Cave thought the time was ripe to insist on the percentage of wool used being stated. Mr Jameson agreed with Mr Baker, but said there were difficulties in dealing with this by legislation. Textile Acts in the United States and Australia defined wool much more closely than Mr Baker had suggested should be done, and specially defined re-used and re-process-ed wool. But the British wool trade objected to a distinction being made between re-used and virgin wool, saying that no test could be applied to show the difference, and the New Zealand Wool Board did not want to disregard the interests of the British exporters. A Wool Labelling Act would be welcomed in New Zealand, Mr Jameson believed. The Board had been collecting information on the subject from overseas, and he and Mr W. Horrobin, the vice-chairman, would get more when they attended the I.W.S. executive meeting in London in May. The object was to submit in New Zealand a suitable Act to incorporate the useful points enacted in other countries.