HOW NEW WOOL BUREAU WILL HELP DOMINION GROWER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 69, 25 March 1949, Page 8

HOW NEW WOOL BUREAU WILL HELP DOMINION GROWER

Reasons underlying the formation of the Wool Bureau to extend the use of wool in the United States and Canada, and details of how it will go about that task were given by Mr F. Eugene Ackerman, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bureau, and by Mr W. Francis Fitz Gerald, President of the Bureau, in addresses to American woolgrowers recently. The texts of these addresses, just received by the New Zealand Wool Board from New York, where the Bureau has its head office, show the immensity of the field in which the Bureau is to work, and the good which it is expected to do. Sellers Market “At this moment,” Mr Ackerman told American growers, “wool is one of the few remaining commodities which still enjoys a sellers market, but already there are dark shadows visible on the horizon of its future. There has not been a time in the past when an intelligently and vigorously conducted programme on behalf of wool was more necessary. Both the shortage of supply a'nd the abnormal spread between prices for medium grades and fine grades of wool is making wool more susceptible to competition and replacement by synthetic substitute fibres than ever before. Producers of these substitute fibres are -taking advantage of the situation by an advertising and promotional programme of national scope, at the cost of millions of dollars.” Emphasising the immensity of the present and potential markets for wool in the United States, Mr Ackerman said that its population had increased by 15 million people in the past 10 years. Births which provided recurring markets in all age groups each year, had numbered some 19 million during the same period. More than 18 million women, earning approximately 28 per cent of the total wages paid nationally, had doubled the sale of women’s clothing in the decade. The total employment of men and women in agriculture and industry was approximately 60 million persons, earning the highest wages annual average incomes ever paid in any country. The result had been, said Mr Ackerman, that for the past four years the consumption for apparel wool had been in excess of 1,000,000,000 pounds greasy annually, compared to the maximum pre-war demand of 600,000,000 pounds. “Wool is a world commodity,” said Mr Ackerman. “The United States is its largest user, and today it must import approximately 80 per cent of its apparel requirements. Even though this country doubled its present wool production, it would still be necessary to import a minimum of 50 per cent of its needs. “The prices which British Dominion wool producers receive for their wool determine the prices which the American woolgrower will receive. These world prices depend, in material degree, upon the market for wool products in this country. Any large scale replacement of wool in the United States by synthetic fibres would toe followed by replacements by textile manufacturers throughout the world. In this closely inter-related world clothing habits are no longer national. They are universal. Wool promotion in this country which sustains and increases markets is not a local affair. It is of equal interest and value to all woolgrowers and all wool textile manufacturers everywhere. Wool Hesearch “It was because the Couhcil and the Secretariat clearly understood this fact that at the 1948 convention of the National Wool Growers Association we initiated'- jointly at the Textile Research Institute at Princeton, New Jersey, the fundamental wool research programme to increase the usefulness of wool. Many of you will recall that Mr Reginald G. Lund, New Zealand representative of the Secretariat in London was present at the convention and pledged the Secretariat’s interest and support. This sympathetic attitude was repeated, by Mr N. R. Jameson, chairman of the New Zealand Wool Board and his associate, Mr W. Horrobin, vicechairman, on their visit here during the past year. “The promised support has been forthcoming in generous measure.”