WOOL AND CLOTH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2014, 12 August 1919, Page 1

WOOL AND CLOTH.

WHAT THE FARMER GAINS. In its advocacy of the ease for the farmer with respect to the present cost of woollen clothing, the Farmers’ Union Advocate lirst refers to the Board of Trade’s coming conference with woollen manufacturers, and then acknowledges that the board has spent the past two years in conferences and investigations, in an attempt to control the price of boots, and the standard boot-which was to be manufactured from the hides which the farmer was compelled to sell at from 10 to 20 per cent, less than its market value, is still unprocurable. The journal then proceeds to remark that “it is not unlikely that the woollen manufacturers will prove to the satisfaction of the Board that they cannot produce standard cloth or yarns unless the price of wool is restricted, and the sympathetic price-fixing board may pass another recommendation to the Government to reduce the price of wool for the local market. Fortunately the price of wool is definitely fixed by the commandeer, and any reduction that may be thought necessary must come out of the consolidated fund, so far as the commandeer prices go, but part' of the contract is the return of half the surplus proceeds, and the local price cannot be reduced without a direct breach of the contract, and we can scarcely imagine that this Government, or any other Government, would deliberately break a contract to please the Board of Trade. The only course open, then, is to cut; down the profits of the woollen manufacturers, and the drapers and tailors, and if the board is no more successful than it has been with the tanners and boot manufacturers, there is not much prospect of cheaper clothing for the people for some time to come.

“The investigation may he of use in showing that profiteering is not all on the side of the farmer, who gets 5s or (is on a suit of dollies which has risen to the consumer by 50s or 60s, or 5d per pound on wool which, in the manufactured state, has risen by 5s to 7s per pound. The press message referred to in excusing the board for spending so much time with so little effect on its standard boot scheme says that so much time would not have been spent but for the apparent desire of the manufacturers before the armistice that something of the sort should be done, hut after the armistice the manufacturers did not wish any assistance or interference from the Government.” The Advocate hopes that the board will “leave the wool producers alone until it has definitely settled matters with the manufacturers. We have had quite enough of the board’s interference with the producer. It complains of not having sufficient-power to restrain the drapers, but the sooner its power to damage the producer is taken away the better shall we be pleased.”