THE WOOL POSITION
'-* FINANCE AND LOCAL SALES. From Our Own Correspondent Palmerston Norm, August 30. At a meeting of tho Wellington Provincial Executive of the Farmers' Union, held at Marion, on Saturday, Messrs. Alan Kobinson and G. L. Marshall reported on what had been dono at tho meeting of woolgrowers in Wellington recently. '• No iinaliiiy had been reached, but a committee had been appointed to go into the matter of financing growers, and it would meet in Wellington shortly t!o draw up a report. There wero about 330,000 bales of wool' in tho Dominion, ami as the Imperial Government had commandeered all the ships until the end of next April, soino means should be lakeu to assist in financing growers until they could gc6 their wool away. Mr. Marshall said that ho found that the matter of finance was not nearly so d fficult, as had been expected, mere especially' in the case of hue wools. The question was one of finunciug -tio the extent of some three to four million pounds to assist the growers of tho coarser wools, and .some men who had only recently embarked on the business. With the opening fa. tho American market if, was quite possible that the position would clear itself. Ho pointed out that the Argentine was doing tho exact revcrso of what was being done in New Zealand. There tho authorities had decided fo give credit to buyers, while here it was 1 proposed lo givn credit to the seller. So far as ho could gather, thero was about eighteen months' supply of wool on tho Homo markets. Tho position wiuld depend ill a great measure on i ! he rate at which the Belgian and other Continental mills were ablo to resume operations.
Mr. W. J. Poison con I ended that a 75 per cent, advance would not be sufficient to iinanee those (miners who hod reccmily taken up' high-priced buds. At the same time lie felt Hint it would not pay to hold the wool for another 1 year. Tho one ray of sanshino was that titer might induce American and Japanese buyers to come here and purchase Xew Zealand producls. Social -sales should bo held here, and it was the duty of the Government to edveitise these as widely as possible and to offer outside buyers financial assistance in the rmrchnso of clius. He moved — ''That having in vW the fact that on a conservative basis the world's stocks of wools by tjio end of the coming season will greatly exceed the pre-war annual .consumption, and in view also of tho fact -■lint scoured Argx|tiuinc wools have already been sold in London at prices ranging from IGJ-d. for 36's to 20d. for 4G's to 48'fi, this executive is not satisfied that the proposal to hold over our wool for twelve months, assisted by a (iovernment aavanco to growers, will give any adequate relief.
"Jt would point out that any advance must be based on a percentage of London parity, and that in addition producers will have to provide long star-age nu<! interest, also that growers would find thornsejves siext year with two years' clips en their hands and be in possibly a worse position than they are at present. This executive* believes that the advantages of more rapid and less expensive sea transit and the saving in exchanges and in storage would induce American and Japanese buyers io patronise local sales in preference to English sales, and therefore urges the Government to take every possible step to advertise our coming season's sales in both countries, and to oiler special io.cHitics'to buyers; further, this execunv* suggests . that the New Zealand Government should ask the Imperial Government to offer credit on its behalf to Contineu. tal manufacturers of repute who may cmsire to purchase our wools. Mr.,Hobinson, in 6eoxmding the motion, expressed himself as strongly in favour of holding local wool sales. Mr. J. A. M'Lcavy thought that every endeavour should be liindc to get thu woollen mills of tlio world nil operating again, and said that he understood thcl the mills in the Dominion were not working up to half their capacity at the present time.'
Mr. Poison pointed out that many of the Continental mills were idle for want of capital. Ho understood that some of these were now being hired,by British firms, who were providing the capital to get them going- again. The motion was carried 'iiianrnouslv, mid ordered to be sent to a'.l farmers' union executives in the Dominion.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 6
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752THE WOOL POSITION Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 6
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