WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 August 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

/ ATION.,

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, August 21. • There is no doubt that wool-growers are frankly anxious .about the future of the wool is a question whether {they ’have- (fully analysed the cause's that have led lip to the present situation. : There' %np doubt ihat artificial silK- or myopias it is now knoivn as, is proving, a very .formidable competitor, and the competition, serious as .it ,ha 6 already proved, is-; certain to be very much more severe. In Britain and other countries additional plants have now reached 1 the .commercial stage, and it is'reported that there is a steady and increasing demand for the high-grade acetate yarn, while even for the inferior vascose the demand is good. Rayon; arid short skirts, have come to stay/and the vogue of shorts or rational dress threatens • to become a feature 'of men’s , clothing. On these two points the position, is indefinite, and it is doubtful if the proposed advertising campaign of “Use more wool” will achieve much, although it cannot be dismissed on that account. Advertising • is the best salesmanship, and who can. tell what is likely to eventuate from wool research and wool • advertising. While rqyon and other factors are lessening the demo.nd;for wool the supply has tended to.increpie. The decline in wool values is! also due" to the '‘expansion and improvement in. the production Of merino wool in South Africa. ... . Expert opinion indicates that .South could and would carfy 40,000.00') to 50,000,000 - increased sheep which would produce over 1,000,000 bales of wool per annum.' There have been in-, ) creases in the, flocks in New Zealand and the United States, and no ope' seems to know what the French are doing in rbspect to sheep Husbandry in Morocco and Algiers. . ; / 1 But the wool-growers are not.thg-0n1y,., sufferers, users of wool have,b£en;l>ij4-. ly/hit. In a financial; i a correspondent points but-that’ 1 ers of wool .trade literature. ipust/E© tired of hearing.'that things ford have been in a bad way. for thq' i last year, but nothing can malfe clearer than/one oif' two.. stated that there has q; Rubli<£ auction of a worsted spinning- conrerptij J t sold at an ' average price of'fifteenj. pence per spindle. This is only-, tne scrap iron price. l ", . • " . ? 1 To replace the spindles now with new, machinery would cost at' least • 555., . spindle, with, all necessary machinery before and after, and more; than hnei; worsted concern is even ■ now capitalised.' 4 up to £3 10s per spindle.-There has belm an auction sale of worsted 100m5... » many of them, selling at £l, . which again;, is only the price of scrap,iron. Those; same loon|s to-day made .by ithe same maker, would cost new to ; £38.; • ■•; ■ - . V Another mill working on the woollen principle has recently installed sets qf cards which have cost around..£2ooo , . cash, yet it is very. doubtful if the second-hand value is, more, than £2QO,, In the wool-combing industry.thert are. .. 15; per cent fewer operatives than' in 1923, and over the past year’s running the average output of combs has been only 57 per cent of their capacity. New combs cost and’ some were recently sold secondhand at £6O to £7O. The correspondent.' says that there is an ..artificial silk concern in Yorkshire in which the best part of £700,000 has been invested in different -forms of shares, and which to-day is worth only, what the; plant;and freehold would fetch. It is, stated that three firms engaged in importing Cape wools to various European .centres have over the past four years averaged not less than £15,000 a year loss.

(Thus it will be seen that manufacturers have. had a hard time and rationalisation together , with the drastio writirig down off plant arid machinery has,' been a failure. ' Still the point is that there is very little hope of wool realising last season’s prices and all that the growers are doing br proposing, to do besides lamenting the ser : - 'ousness of the position is to advertise “Use more wool” and a compulsory levy is proposed. We do not hear of wool growers writing down the value of their lands. The Bradford correspondent we have quoted above sriys: “One reason.why wool-growers say they cannot afford to accept, less money for their wool is that they have never written down the capital value of their stations. Many of those that changed hands just after the war did so at a very high level, and with merino wool at anything below' 18d per IB delivered Australian ports there is nothing but loss on the working of the station, and the same can, be said of the sheep lands in New Zealand.” The. correspondent adds: “If growers have not been able to make a profit during the past year or two it is almqst safe to say that they never will, because they have been handsomely paid by buyers on their year’s shepherding.