CONFERENCE ON WOOL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 13

CONFERENCE ON WOOL

S.I. Association

Members of the South Island Wool Association attending their eleventh annual conference at Canterbury Agricultural College were shown how wool was spun thousands of years ago. Mr G. McNeill, manager of the Kaputone Wool Scouring Company, who has been spinning as a hobby for the last 35 years, gave demonstrations of home spinning. Holding up a weighted wooden spindle which spins as wool is fed to it, Mr McNeill said that this was the method of spinning used about 7000 years ago. Subsequently the spindle was mounted and driven by a wheel, and that system was used until Hargreaves invented the s.pinning-jenny. About 1530, he said, a German invented a spinning wheel with which continuous spinning was done for the first time. He had put a bobbin on the spindle and used a flyer By applying a break to the bobbin the wool was wound on as it was spun. Mr McNeill also demonstrated a wooden propellertype spinner used by the Arabs, a handsome Finnish spinning wheel, and a wheel that he built himself for only about 2s 6d. using a sewingmachine wheel. Members of the association attending the conference, who are drawn mainly from the staffs of woo] stores, also listened to a lecture on core sampling for moisture and yield by Mr A R. Edmunds, lecturer in physics at the college, and an illustrate! lecture on the fundamentals of wool growth and feeding for wool

growth by Dr. A. E. Henderson, reader in woo] at the college.

Competitions resulted:— Count and yield: M. Agar (New Zealand Farmers’ Cooperative Association, Ltd. Christchurch) 1. L. Galloway (Department of Agriculture, Christchurch) 2. A. C. Jack (National Mortgage and Agency Company, Ltd., Timaru) 3, I. McNeil] (Dalgety and Company, LtdChristchurch) and E. Connolly (New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association Ltd.. Christchurch) equal 4. Count: K. M. Collins (Dalgety and Company, Ltd, Christchurch) and C. Henderson (Temuka) equal 1, C Bedford (Christchurch Wools, Ltd ), and M. Agar equal 3. Yield: R. Mills (Southland Farmers’ Co-operative Association, Ltd.. Invercargill) 1. G. Holden (Wright. Stephenson and Company, Ltd, Dunedin) and M. Agar equal 2.