The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1931. THE WOOL CONFERENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1931. THE WOOL CONFERENCE.

The Wool Conference which was concluded at Melbourne recently considers an. exchange, may be regarded as the first serious attempt on the part of the principal countries of the British Efmpire that grow wool to deal with the production and marketing of this important staple in accordance with existing economic conditions and modern business methods. For too long the wool growers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have remained among that gradually diminishing minority of producers who have 'been content to think only of their own end of the complicated processes by which the fleece is taken from the sheep’s back and brought into common uso. While industrial leaders in different spheres have been demonstrating the importance of high service at low cost, agricultural co-operation lias been misrepresented as .the best way for the producer to reserve to himself the allegedly exorbitant profits of the middlemen. Such a narrow angle of vision could be expected to achieve little for primary industry. A genuine desire, however, for the rehabilitation of the wool industry in all its phases has had the effect of bringing together representatives of growers in three countries with a view to considering what steps should be taken to ensure more stable conditions for both producers and manufacturers. The problems confronting the delegates to the conference were many and difficult, but there can be no doubt that the more dangerous of the pitfalls that threaten gatherings of this nature were successfully avoided. The emphatic rejection of four schemes for the

stabilisation of values on the ground that they all involved some form of price-fixing furnished conclusive evidence of the anxiety of delegates to avoid an unsatisfactory artificial expedient which has done more harm than good to other primary producers. An enepuraging .note was struck by Sir Graham Waddel in his opening address, in which he expressed- the determination of the wool growers to work out their own salvation without. Government assistance. The faith in the future of the industry implied in such a statement must have had the effect of producing the right atmosphere for the deliberations that followed. While requiring that Governments in their respective countries should recognise the supreme importance of wool growing, and refrain from placing any obstacles in the way of Its development, delegates indicated that State interference was likely to prove as distasteful to producers as the arbitrary fixation of prices. Of all the- questions discussed none- had a more direct bearing on current, problems than the proposals in respect of concentration on the task of multiplying the uses to which wool may be put and of increasing the demand for the manufactured article. The menace of substitutes, notwithstanding the low level of wool prices, is still groat, and can be overcome only by co-oper-ation between growers and manufacturers in an effort to revise and reduce* tbe cost of preparing wool for consumption. Insurance against low values, methods of sale of the raw material, and means of distribution are of minor importance compared with the question of the demand for wool. All sections of the industry must combine to make the fullest use of the results that have- lately been secured by scientific research in the battle against competitive materials. It is comforting to reflect that the conference gave due prominence to this aspec-t of the situation.