WOOLLEN GOODS.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 48, 2 December 1882, Page 2

WOOLLEN GOODS.

Thk money sent away from Feilding for the purchase of woollen goods manufactured in the colony reaches the very respectable total of £2000 annually. The articles returned for this consist of men's clothing, blankets, hosiery and other kinds of goods, the produce of wool from the factories in Canterbury and Dunedin. Assuming for the sake of argument that other townships on the West Coast contribute in proportion to the number of inhabitants, making all dne allowances for differences of occupations pursued by the consumers, the following results will be arrived at: — Feilding £2000 Palmerston 2000 Bulls 500 Marton 500 Sanson 500 Foxton 500 giving a total of £6000 that would be retained and expended in other directions if we had the enterprise and courage to •tart a woollen factory in the Manawatu. This total is a minimum, and merely intended to show what returns would be at hand for payment of the working expenses of a company. We do not think that either Palmerston or Feilding is likely to float a company by themselves, because singly they cannot afford to tie up the amount of capital that would be required. But we do think that a directory supplied from both places would be able to accomplish the work. The best site for the factory would be on the Kiwitea stream, the waters of which could be made to supply the motive powers to work the machinery, and thereby be a source of direct saving to the company. The Palmerstonians would have the satisfaction of knowing that Feilding gained no greater benefit than they did by the residence of the factory hands. We will resume this subject on a future occasion.