A FARMER'S EXPERIMENT.

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 37, 17 December 1901, Page 4

A FARMER'S EXPERIMENT.

No doubt influenced by the very low returns received from wool and the high prices paid for manufactured woollen goods in the colony, a prominent farmer on this coast has determined to launch into an experiment which may be fraught with great possibilities of advantage to the farmers of the colony. This gentleman, says the Maiawatu Standard, was so struck with the vast gap between the returns he is getting for his wool and what he had to pay for blankets that he made inquiries at the woollen mills in the colony as to what they would charge for manufacturing his wool into marketable materials. Getting no satisfaction from that source, he communicated with some Home manufacturers, with the result that he is sending a bale of wool this year to the proprietary of a well-known woollen mill in the Old Country on condition that it is manufactured into blankets and tweed of a certain pattern. Should the result be satisfacto y, he inetnds to dispone of the whole of next year's clip in the same way, the manufacturer charging schedule rates for his part of the work, besides paying the New Zealand Customs dut'e-. The prices will y ;ive a margin of about 80 per cent on the cost of similar goods in New Zealand, and if the result comes up to expectations, an object lesson of considerable importance to the community will have been given.