OPENING UP A WOOL TRADE WITH CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5245, 15 January 1878, Page 3

OPENING UP A WOOL TRADE WITH CHINA.

■ That the wool of Australia and New Zealand will ultimately find a most lucrative market in China seems probable at no distant date, and when once such a trade is established, its magnitude and importance can hardly be over-estimated. To those who have interested themselves in the matter, great credit is due ; and we feel sure that the following correspondence on the subject with which we have been favored by Captain Holt (of Messrs. Holt and McCarthy, of the Press Agency), will be read with much interest “S.S. Tangore, « Off King George Sound, Dec. 5, 1877. “My Dear Sib, —It has occurred to me that it might bo of service if I were placed in possession of particulars regarding the manufacture of the piece of cloth made by the Chinese, the nature of the material, and the duality of the wool from which it was manufactured ; also locality, &c. When I say particulars, I mean tho exact particulars, suitable for instance for insertion in a pamphlet. I should also bo pleased to have any articles bearing on the question of a Chinese market for Austrailian wool that you could let me have. You may depend upon tho exhibit not being lost sight of, and of its obtaining a good position in tho forthcoming exhibition, and I venture to think that there will be few things that will attract a greater interest among certain classes than this exhibit, and that you

will yet have every reason to congratulate yourself on the success attending your enterprise.—l have,-&c,, “Douglas McLean. “ To Monckton Synnot, Esq., Melbourne.” “ December 27. “My Dear Mr. McLean, —-Your letter dated the sth inst., on board the s.s. Tangore, off King George Sound, has only just reached me, leaving very little time to reply as fully as I could have wished. However, lam glad to hear you purpose to secure a prominent position in the Paris Exhibition for our little exhibit, aud have some idea of giving publicity to the matter, by means of a pamphlet, though I must own I have no great faith in that particular .method of attracting notice. The only information I can give you at present,is a sketch of what has been already done, aud the reasons which led me to adopt the particular means I used, to get our wool worked into a cloth by the Chinese. For years past I have noticed from every London wool sale many thousands of hales have been withdrawn, to he held over to swell tiie number of bales, legitimately belonging to the following series, aud have felt that under certain combinations of circumstances, certain to happen sooner or later, the results of this system will bring disaster on the colonies ; or rather, I should say, will agravate it when the time comes. A little book by Samuel Mossman, late editor of the North China Herald, which I met with a few years ago, first led me to look to China and Japan as countries admirably adapted iu many ways to relieve us in case of need, of a great part of your surplus wool, or even the whole of it, if the scheme were successful. F’ollowing up the subject by reading every procurable work upon those countries, I became convinced that a people who were skilful weavers of cotton, silk, and other fibres, could manage wool also, as easily as the peasantry of my native country used to it, with machinery equally rude as that in use in every village through the Chinese Empire. Acting upon this idea I commenced a correspondence with a mercantile house in Shanghai, which offered to make ‘the trial if I sent the material. This I resolved to do at my own coat—in the first instance to prevent interference with tiie method I wished to adopt, viz., to get a Chinese weaver to make a woollen cloth, without knowing exactly what he was about—and I arranged it in this way : My friends were to get a cotton weaver to agree to use a weft or woof of my supplying, along with his own cotton warp ; the plan succeeded, and John Chinaman turned out a good strong union cloth very much to his own surprise, aud so the trick was done. The sample sent to the care of your London agents was the only piece I had at hand, having distributed all the rest among the several Australian colonies, aud in fact, it is the identical piece which I.had sent to Sydney, but being received so coldly in that conservative city, I had it back just in time to entrust to you. My correspondents at Shanghai had promised to send me information from time to time how the Chinese were progressing with the experiments witli the woollen yarns, of which they still had a good stock, as well as a smaller shipment sent since ; but as yet I have heard nothing more from them on the subject, but you may rely on_ my keeping you informed of everything bearing upon the subject. There is an aspect of the subject presents itself to me as possible ; —might not the English China merchants put obstacles iuthe way 1 lam led to make this suggestion because some Englishman iu Shanghai, under the nom de plume of ‘ Victorian,’ took the trouble of writing a letter to the Melbourne Aryus condemning my attempt as preposterous, for reasons which he had previously given to some gentleman in Sydney, who had applied for mfonnation respecting a wool trade with China (copy of Victorian letter cut from the Aryus enclosed). They, I believe, sent wool in its raw state which failed to attract any attention. I sent yam for the reason that a weaver even, and much more a mere trader in cloth, might look for a long time at a fleece of wool, or a bale of the same, before a piece of broad cloth would be suggested to his mind. While, on the other hand, every weaver would at once comprehend the use of a hank of yarn, and by actual experiment, such as I wished to be made, could soon determine its value. In no other way can I conceive a conservative people such as are the Chinese, at once grasping the idea of using an entirely new article in their manufactures, than by placing it before them at the outset in such a shape as they could not mistake, making a free gift of small quantities from time to time until experiment proved its value, and I think we need not fear tiiat woo] will not take its proper place among any manufacturing people. The great object of Australians now should he to keep it before the Chinese weavers iu as many villages or towns as possible, either by the means I have suggested, or better if they can be devised. “ The following donations have been voluntarily offered since I began these experiments for establishing a wool trade direct between Australia and China, and I may here say I will not seek others that do not come iu a similar manner :—Messrs. R. Goldshrongh and Co., £SO ; Messrs. H. Cunningham aud Co., £25 ; and your own, £5. The total cost to date, including a small parcel of oppossura and rabbit skins as a trial, £0 25., has beeii exactly £129 10s. Bd. sterling. If you conclude to publish anything upon this subject, I wish you would read the late John Wilson’s 19th lecture on our Israelitish origin, ‘ French testimony as to the English Constitution ;’ that part I specially mean respecting the future relations between Australia and China by I’revost J’aradol. There was a telegram in the Aryus from New Zealand the other day which will interest, and I will cut it out and enclose along with friend ‘Victorian’s’ letter; and with wishing yon every success iu your new career, —I have, &c., “ Monckton Sy’nnot.”

“ The yarn sent to China first left Melbourne 17th March, 1877, via Sydney, and was shipped per s.s. Bowen for Hongkong, thence by coast steamer to Shanghai to Messrs. Olyphant and Co., who had undertaken to get it worked into cloth, if possible. They have not written to me since they sent back the sample (of which you have a piece). Date of their letter, 4th August, 1877. Length’ of samples, 22ft.; received in Melbourne 14th September, 1877. Tiie yarn was that used in one of our local mills as warp for the commonest kind of tweed, I should say a low-class merino wool, probably skirts, or pieces, perhaps locks. The colors grey, and a dull purple, chosen at Shanghai from samples I had previously sent. “ Since then, in October I think, I sent another consignment of really beautiful yarns of every color used in shawls, flannels, and blankets, hut I am beginning to fear English influence will cause more trouble than Chinese conservation. These last yarns were mado chit-fly at the Castlcmaine Woollen Company’s mill, a smaller portion at the Ballarat Company’s mill. They were both in grease and scoured ; in fact, I sent a good many pounds of the best yarns I could procure. “ Monckton Synnot. “ Melbourne, December 27, 1877.”