AUSTRALIA AFTER JAPAN'S WOOL TRADE

Chronicle (Levin), 14 March 1946, Page 3

AUSTRALIA AFTER JAPAN'S WOOL TRADE

ESTABLISHMENT OF MILLS . PLANNED SYDNEY, March 12. The establishment of 30 woollen mills in Austraiia designed to capture the woollen trade held by Japan before the war is planned by British, Australian and Indian interests. The Federal Government has been asked to approve of the formation of the company with a capital of £20,000,000. Mr. V/. H. Mather, the British woollen manufacturer who is consultant to the promoters, said that the company would use 1,000,000 bales of wool a year, ranging from inferior to good grade. The output of low-priced goods would be almost exclusively for export. The total yearly consumption of all Australian mills at present is 500,000 bales of average to best grades. Mr. Mather estimated that the total export trade from Austraiia would be worth about £501,000,000 a year. A total of 80 per cent. of the production would be woollens, and the rest worsteds. The products would include blankets, rugs, low-priced suitings, and flannels. Ten of the mills would he in New South Wales, five each in Victoria and Queensland, four each in South Austraiia and Westorn Austraiia, and two in Tasmania. They would provide employment for 45,000 people, threeIquarters of whom would he unskilled. Probably most of the skilled workers f . would have to he imported.