'Use Of Woolmark Well Justified'

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31098, 29 June 1966, Page 2

'Use Of Woolmark Well Justified '

Alarming ignorance and misrepresentation of woollen fibres made the new Woolmark symbol, devised for use on pure virgin woollen goods, a necessity, Miss Joan Young, education officer for the Wool Board, said recently.

Miss Young, who recently spent six months visiting 22 countries to examine various aspects of the wool industry, was speaking to a group of Christchurch retailers. From her experience, both in New Zealand and elsewhere, she cited many examples of ignorance and misuse.

Travelling in Holland she discovered that there were no labelling laws and therefore manufacturers did not have the same protection as they did in New Zealand. Merchandise which contained as little as 15 per cent wool was allowed to use the wool label, she said. Buyers who saw pure wool garments alongside largely synthetic garments bearing the wool label were naturally attracted by the cheaper price of the synthetics, and when the goods did not give the service they expected their complaints were directed against wool. In New Zealand, one retailer although aware of the symbol, did not know what “pure virgin wool” was, said Miss Young.

“What happens to the wool after the sheep has had a lamb?” he asked Miss Young at a North Island gathering. His own embarrassment and that of his wife and the rest of the audience had been too real to be funny, Miss Young said.

Pure virgin wool was new wool, straight from the sheep’s back, said Miss Young, The label indicated that the wool in the cloth had never been used before. While in London. Miss Young visited a “shoddy” wool factory where used wool-

len clothes from all parts of the world were broken down into fibres and made up again. People unable to afford wool bought such second-rate products, she said. STRINGENT TESTS The woolmark assured the buyer of pure virgin wool which had to meet stringent tests to qualify for the trademark. Manufacturers sent samples of their goods to the Wool Board’s technical service centre in Wellington. These were examined under a microscope for silt or impurities and then tested chemically for their wool content. A tolerance of 5 per cent was allowed for a non-wool fibre used for visible decorative effect and less than 1 per cent for inadvertent impurities. If successful in his application. the manufacturer had to agree to use the same specifications for all garments using the symbol. Spot checks were made from time to time by Wool Board officials. Should a garment carry the mark and not reach the specifications, the consequences were dire for the manufacturer, said Miss Young. This had happened in Europe where manufacturers had introduced foreign fibres into their woollen goods and had lost their licences. Already the mark had been

launched in 22 countries and eventually it would cover 89. It had proved so successful that there had already been attempts to pirate it. The trademark was actually the the winning entry of a world competition won by an Italian designer. Tests were necessary because it was impossible to tell pure wool just by looking at it or even by feeling it, said Miss Young. ULTIMATE FIBRE

While in America, Miss Young visited many of the great synthetic houses. She was intrigued to find that they always had enormous quantities of wool, which they constantly tested and examined under microscopes. When she questioned this, she was told: “Wool is the ultimate fibre and we are trying to produce something as good from a test tube.” Miss Young said she had brought back some synthetic yarn and had shown it to farmers, wool scientists and many others in the field, who had readily identified it as a fine wool sample. The synthetic was a wavy crimp, to simulate natural woollen yarn. However, when knitted into a garment, the crimp had stretched beyond the point of return, proving beyond doubt that only the look was woollen, said Miss Young. When she was travelling on a plane with an Australian skin specialist, he had admired some beautiful “wool” rugs, said Miss Young. Told they were not wool, he was astounded until Miss Young broke off a few fibres, lit them with a match, and allowed them to melt in Ms hand. New facets of wool’s superiority were still being discovered, said Miss Young. She cited two recent experiments. At the University of Munster, in Germany, six students who had gained identical scores in many tests of physical and mental aptitude were each given a different wardrobe and were given more tests.

The student wearing wool had scored noticeably better than the other five students during the retesting, said Miss Young. She did not elaborate beyond assuring her amused audience that the experiment was genuine. In another experiment members of the Danish Air Force were dropped into the sea wearing a variety of fabrics. The young man wearing wool was not so much affected by exposure and his recovery rate was much greater, said Miss Young.