AUCTION SALES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 191, 8 May 1920, Page 10

AUCTION SALES

i FORTHCOMING FIXTURES. TO-DAY. Assembly Hall. iWumjjuiui. 11.30 a.in.Liind- sale (N.Z. Loan Oo.). Little Pipitea Street. Wellington. 2 p.m.fiale of hornet), vans, etc. (Wilson an Co.). Tailiapc, 2.30 p.m.—Land sale (William and Kettle and Hoadlcy, Son and Stew art), MONDAY. I Mangahao Yards, Pahiatua, 11.30 a.m.Cattle sale (Wairarapa Fanners'). Queen Street, Levin, 12 noon.—Bale of slocli implements, furniture, etc. (N.Z. Loai Co.). Tokomaru, 1 p.m.—Sale of stock and im plcuients (Abraham and Williams), TUESDAY. Goa Street, 'Kilbirnie, 11 a.m.—Sale o motorcars (Wilßon and Co.). I Brandon Hall, Hulls, 11.30 a.m.-Sale o I stock and implements (Levin and Co. and Dalgety and Co.). Levin Yards, 1 p.m.—Stock sale (Associate! Auctioneers). 157 Lambton Quay, Wellington, 2 p.mSale of art collection (Johnston and Co.) 195 Lambton Quay, Wellington, 2.30 p.mSalo of city and suburban property (Har court and Co.). Feathcrston Street, Wellington, 2.30 p.m.Propcrty sale (Bethune and Co.). WOOL TRADE PROFITS YORKSHIRE MANUFACTURERS' REVIEW OF THE TRADE. The following communication, signed bj tho president, of the Worsted Spinners Federation, on the present conditions ii the woollen and worsted 1 industry ha; been published in Britain:— The Worsted Spinners' Federation, Ltd, 20 King's Arcade, Market Street, Bradford, March 4, 1920. Dear Sir,—Under the Profiteering Act r sub-committee on the woollen and worstct _ industry was recently appointed to investigate costs and profits in certain stages ""J of wool cloth manufacture. That sub--9 committee has not yet concluded the takH ins of evidence, and has not "eported. 8 Nevertheless there has been given 'to .8 the public, as if it were the report of _ | a committee which had taken evidence I and had come to judicial findings, tin § "ex parte" statement from the Standing I Committee on the Investigation of Prices, | in which sensational (and incorrect) alloI gations are made ns to wool spinners' profits. We feel that the public mind needs a. corrective to the false impression conveyed by that "ex parte" statement before it has presented to it the real facts of the sub-committee on tho woollen and worsted industry; and ask yon to publish a brief explanation of the present conditions of the wool industry. AVool, like all other great staple rvw materials, lias advanced greatly in price, the finer qualities to five times the prewar value. ■ This appreciation is in part duo to tlio inflation of the curerncy,in part to increased labour and other costs in prime i production and in transport, In subsequent operations to increased labour and machine costs in manufacture; in part (but not in great.part) to the "profit" earned in nil these 6tnges. The advance in raw material cost has been much less in the case of tho <«wrser wools, which are made up into sound cloths of good appearance, but.not of luxurious fineness. The advance in labour costs lias also been much less in tho case of coarser cloth than in that of the finer cloths, since the making up of the coarser cloths does not entail ns ninny processes on the making up of very fine worsteds. It Is possible to purchase sound tweeds and other woollens at a cost well within the means of the average wage-earner of to- . day. The great advance in prices has been in the very fine worsteds, made out of merino wool, for which there is great J competition at home and abroad. \ The price of a "suit length" of worsted is high, but there is no reali grievance to I tho people of small means in Hie high price of a "luxury." From tho point of view of the nation at laTge there is an actual advantage in a high pric? for any luxury that is largely exported; for tho higher the price the better tho effect on tho foreign exchange, and, consequently, the cheaper the price of food we have to import from abroad. Fine worsteds come under the category of luxuries, whieli are largely exported, and for which tli? home trade demand has greatly increased since the war, to the negfect of other more serviceable fabrics. On the question of whether the profits Are unreasonable in the wool industry wo would prefer to postpone an answer until the report of the Wool Sub-Coni-mittce has been presented (though it seems to be, unfortunately, a fact that Socialist members of the Profiteering Committees act as ■ though their function is a partisan arid not a judicial one.) But it may bo pointed out without prejudice to issues, which are sub judire, that the manufacture of wool cloth is an ' industry in which a large speculative element must enter, and that consequent- ' ly there arc lean years and fat years, . and no estimate of profit which :s not based on the average of a series of years i is a sound one—Yours faithfully, FRED ' MITCHELL, president Worsted Spinners' I Federation (Limited), Bradford. :