Wool Consumption By British People Important To N.Z.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 35, 7 September 1949, Page 8

Wool Consumption By British People Important To N.Z.

Wellington, Tuesday.

Britain is consuming 20 to 25 per cent more wool than before the war and probably uses more wool per head of population than any other nation in the world. These facts are important to New Zealand because Britain buys more of the Dominion’s wool than any other nation. An analysis prepared by the Commonwealth Economic Committee of Britain’s consumption of textile raw materials shows that, in 1938, the United Kingdom used 390 million lb (clean content) of wool, and that the corresponding figure for 1948 was 493 million lb, an increase of approximately 25 per cent. As the 1938 figure appears to have been unusually low, an average of the 1937 and 1938 figures show that U.K. wool' consumption over the t.v/o years averaged 414 million lb per year. Even on the two year average, Britain’s use of wool last year was 20 per cent higher than before the war.

As Britain’s use of wool this year has tended to advance compared with last year, it is probable that, if up-to-date comparison could be made, her increase over pre-war consumption would be even greater, says the New Zealand Wool Board. 1 At no recorded period during or since the war has Britain’s wool consumption exceeded the remarkable' figure attained last year; the nearest approach being 481 million lb in 1940.