THE WOOL TRADE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1920, Page 3

THE WOOL TRADE

STATEMENT BY SIR A. GOLDFINCH. LONDON, September 7. The wool situation is discussed by Sir Arthur Goldfinch, Director of Raw Materials in an interview. He raid , " the situation had reached a point within the last twenty-four hours which , justified him in saying that he would . not take part in future controversy, hut merely proceed quietly, realising the balance of Imperial woql ps fast as shipjpqg was available, °r the market could absorb it. The'English and An?trajian business was now closed, so far as the Imperial Government was concerned, except for the transportation and realisation of unshipped stocks in and unsold, stocks in England , aggregating over 3,000,000 hales. He had informed the. Australian Wool Com • mittee that he was already overstocked with scoured wool and that prices u ei e de • predating. He protested against the continued scouring of Australian stocks, because the schedule of values for scoured in England was relatively lower than for- greasy. He was unable to extract from anybody in Australia what was really wanted Did they want to rip open unshipped- bales and have them scoured for the purpose of finding occupation for scouring establishments? Tf so, it would mean material losses on realisation in England, wifi a corresponding dmjipution surplus profit 6; which growers npw shared with the Imperial Government. For Australians to employ scourers to depreciate the wool for* ulterior purposes was an act of madness. Rather than become a party to such uneconomic aberration he would sooner hand a lump sum, equivalent to the cost of scouring, to the scourers, provided he could reimburse himself from increased realisation. Asked what he proposed, Sir Arthur Goldfinch replied that he wanted the . wool sent in the same proportions of

scoured and unscoured las formorly, under commercial conditions, and not complicated by political or other, ex - traneous considerations. He admitted during the war, having requested increased scouring, even if a loss resulted because the' reduction of the deadweight transport was of greater :m----porfcance than the wool profits; hut with a return of comparative normality it was necessary to revert to normal commercial conditions, as far as transport and the marketing of the balanco of Imperial wool was concerned. After that Australia could please herself whether she sold wool scoured or unscoured; but he Warned wool growers that if they insisted on scoured, in undue prppor-tion, for forthcoming sales, buy- , i n g ordeVs to a large extent would be cancelled •