GOOD WOOL CHEQUE BENEFITS EVERYBODY

Chronicle (Levin), 28 April 1947, Page 7

GOOD WOOL CHEQUE BENEFITS EVERYBODY

VAST POSSIBILITIES FOR TRADE EXPANSION WELLINGTON, April 27. Not very much wool is produced eaeh year in the world if you consider the total number of people iu it; but only the lucky ones enjoy such a high standard of "living that they are able, eveu in times of plenty, to have all the wool they would wisli to use, stated Dr. Edgar Booth, ehairman of the International Wool Secretariat, who is visiting New Zealand. "The total weight of wool grown evervwhere in a year," he added, "is onlv* 4, ()()(), 000, 000 poumls, and there are 2,4()0,000,000 people. Even in the form of greasy fleece as it falls froin the sliears there are not two pounds of wool for every person. But wool coming froni the sheep eontains a lot of wool fats (which exentually come to you eleansed in the form of Janoline, brushless shaving cream and other toilet preparations) and other solids, besides earth, wliich add to its total weiglit. So two pounds of fleece wool in the grease, as we say, yields only about oue pound weight of scoured wool — only oue pound of wool eacli year for every person in the world. "To give you sonie idea of how far tliis would go," a suit for a well-de-veloped nian calls for tliree and a half yards of niaterial. The ordinary weight of the worstcd cloth used would be about 14 ounces to the yard and the weight of scoured wool in niy suit would be therefore, soinething lilce three pounds. 80, if I were allowed niy /fair share of the world 's wool, I would "be able to buy only oue suit every three vears and nothing else of any kind containing wool. As I have, like niost people, a full appreciation of the virtues and values of wool, I would find that extremely depressing, even more depressing in the cold northern elimes from wliich I have just come. Aetually there are hundreds of niillions of people "in India, and similarly in China and other eountries, wno eonsunie practicallv no wool at any time. Higher standaids of living and a higher consumption of wool go hand in hflnd. It could be taken as an indication of improvement in living standards if the consumption of wool per head of a population increased. "New Zealand is one of the world'sj greatest benefactors in providing and sending overseas those vital necessities of life, meat and wool. But she gets back for distribution amongst all the money for all New Zealanders, not for

return to the woolgrower — hut this is people in her own islands the value of I that meat and wool. a good wool clip and a good price. for wool mean a good wool growers alone.','