WORLD’S WEALTH IN FIBRES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 227, 7 September 1933, Page 4

WORLD’S WEALTH IN FIBRES

■WteOL S VALUE TO THE EMPIRE. NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE. Mbw Zealand as a. wool producer had tfkrd place within the Empire, and IPt’i in the world, with an output in Ml of 118,000 tons, although sheep euro reared primarily for meat. Like *e United Kingdom she has the best wqssbrede in the world obtained by •eitentrfic breeding, and they give excellent wool as well as meat. These <&ts appear in a report recently isaSd bv the Empire Marketing Board feSl*' Fibres.” The report also reviews RPb world production and trade in cotun, silk, hemp, jute and flax of which me importance in the native trade may Ha gauged bv their estimated value of «&5,006,000.. 'Mew Zealand's woo! production in |p4! was double that of the United IKgdom which receives 80 per cent, et her exports. France was the next tptX customer, taking 6 per cent. Wool rfports in themselves make up in value ■&ro than a quarter of all New Zea.jfind's export trade, but have to be to those of South Africa and Argentine before equalling Australia's Mfput. Australia has the largest sheep popuhfion in the world, and accosts for qcar'y one quarter of the estimated of the world’s wnpplv of wool. Her sheep are mainly of the merino type and are increasing in numbers, jit is noted in the report that during the slump merino held its price better Wan the crossbred. IBHTED KINGDOM RECORD WOOL IMPORTER. World wool is valued at £370 million, and of that the Empire's share is nearly one half. The Empire as a Whole is an exporter of wool on a very targe scale although the United Kingdom in 1932 absorbed more wool than any other country. She is the l>cst •mstomer not only of New Zealand but ■ lev of South Africa and Argentine, Aiilst one third of Australia's exjprts enter her ports. But it must be tawembered that Britain carries on an Stamsive entrepot trade. MCRKASE in empire hemp. lute, hemp and flax hare comparefwflv small roles to piny in world

trade. Jute to the value of £BO mil- I lion enters the market, 99 per cent. , coming from within the Empire, whore it ranks third in volume, being pre- • ceded by wool and cotton. Hemp now understood to embrace all those fibres used in cordage manufacture is grown mainly outside the Empire. But sisal hemp is the most important export of Tanganyika, where until 1930 there had been a steadily increasing' production. New Zealand’s fibre is called phormium tenax, but her industry has been severely handicapped during recent years owing to the heavy full in prices. She produced 22,000 tons of fibre in 1926, and only 15,0(10 in 1930: more recent figures are not available. New Zealand divides her fibre exports between the United States (33 per cent.),* the United Kingdom (22 per cent.) and Australia (33 per cent.). The Empire remains a net importer of manila. COTTON THE CHIEF TEXTILE. Cotton if judged by its output estimated at £520 million is easily the leading textile material in the world. India and the United States have more land under cotton than the whole of the rest of the world, the former with 22,600.000 acres, the latter with 15 million more. But the difference in production is greater than would appear because cotton does not yield in proportion to the ground it covers. In India the yield is only 851bs. to the acre, in the States nearly double that amount, ICOlbs.. whilst in Egypt it is as much as 4001bs. to the acre. The world average is about lsolbs. It is the low yield of the Indian crop that reduces the Empire’s share of world production to about 20 per cen t. as against 33 per cent, of the world's acreage. Countries within the Empire, other than India, which produce cotton are Africa (South, East and West), the British West Indies, Cyrus, Ceylon and Australia, but these combined areas only make an infinitesimal fraction of the vast tracts covered by Indian ootton. During recent years there has been an increasing amount of land cultivated for cotton in Uganda and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan whilst, there has been a decreasing amount in India.