WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1928, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

WOOL DOMINATES THE POSITION

[Special To The Guardian.]

AVELLINGTON, November 16

AA 00l to-day stands in the forefront ol Dominion products and wool sales are being bold in Australia and New Zealand, and it is happens that a wool sale is current in London also. Practically every wool broker lias received advices from London giving the tone ol the market and the price variations. -Much importance cannot bo attached to London as a wool market for its pre-eminence as such lias vanished. It is Australia and New Zealand which set the pace and not London. The wool selling season opened in Sydney in August, when prices were much easier as compared with the closing sale prices of the previous season. AVlien the fifth series of London sales opened

in September last there was a drop in prices and this was merely a reflection of tbe movement in Australia. Last month tbe wool buyers were arriving in the Dominion for the sales here and some of the buyers aired their opinions and aired tl.eir views that local prices would not be up to the level of last season, and some of the , selling brokers anticipated a bigger . drop than actually took place. Before j tlio New Zealand sales commenced a i

firmer tone was displayed in Australia, j and prices showed an upward tendency. j This was reflected at the Napier sale, where prices wore a shade better than in AVellington, and in London alsj prices advanced. The colonial sales dominate tbe situation, and l ightly so, for those who attend tbe sales ere genuine buyers and operate according to instructions. The representatives of all consuming centres operate here, and Hie conditions are not the same in all manufacturing centres. If Bradford and Germany are unable to operate freely then France, tbe United States, or Japan may dominate the market. In Australia great credit is given to Japan for tlk* assistance given by the representatives of that country at' the sales in Australia. AVinehcomhr, Carsons, Ltd., in a recent report, stated that a feature of the Australian wool sales, so far this season is the extent to which buyers operating on behalf of Japan have figured in the market. Demand for wool from that quarter had not faltered since the season opened. It is considered that the textile world in parioular lias to revise its views of

Japan as a trader and manufacturer For the ten months ended June 31st last Wincombe, Carson, Ltd., state, that Japan's imports were the equiva lent of 360,000 hales of wool, and k bad to lie realised that, whereas in most countries the larger part of tin, wool received was subsequently exported in the form of tops, yarns, or fab ries, practically the whole of the woo! imported by Japan was for domesti consumption. WOOL AND AUTTFILIAL SILK.

Dr. S. G. Barker, Director of Resea roll for the British woollen and worsted industries recently stated at Leicester that experiments were being made with wool, which, it was hoped would end in the production of a fabric to compare in lightness and lustre with any other material, and so Avin back for wool its place in the favour o! women. Dr Barker insisted that woo was the only rational clothing. lie said that the animals of the field won not clothed with wood pulp. T hey

were provided with an outer coverin' l of a perfect character. It was capable of withstanding all climatic and atmospheric conditions, and capable also oi giving the maximum of hen Itb-giviug properties to tbe animal it sol I. AM through the ages attempts bad been made to utilise fibres ol vegetable origin to supplement wool. 'throughout wool had held its own. Dr Marker stated that wool as produced on tin farms in the Dominions was not grown with special care to meet the wants and requirements of the maliutaeturcr. The raw material went forward to the industry under a general heading ol “ wool,” good, bad, or indifferent, and suitable or unsuitable, regardless oi the finished product. To. bis mind the growers and tbe manufacturer should be linked together with a close and firm scientific link of fleece and fibre analysis. Experimenting work was noing carried on with the object ol making wool unshrinkable.

When wool is referred to, one cannot help thinking of Bradford, lor wool and Bradford are closely related. The wool trade for centuries was the cliiol trade of Bradford-on-Avon, as it was indeed, for a long time the principal trade of England. Formerly English wool was exported to Flanders mainly, and there made into cloth. Hut ii 1331 King Edward. 111. invited a number of the Flemish mei 'haiits and manufacturers to England, some o' whom settled in Bradford. Business prospered and large fortunes wen made. In 1659 spinners were imported from Holland and the manufacture of cloth greatly increased the prosperity of the town.