OPENING UP A WOOL TRADE WITH CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5260, 1 February 1878, Page 7

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 Sir, —It has occurred to me that it might be of service if I were placed in possession of particulars regarding the manufacture of the piece of cloth made by the Chiin sc, the nature of the material, and the ouality of the wool from which it was manufactured ; also locality, &o. When I say particulars, I mean the exact particulars, suitable for instance for insertion in a pamphlet. I should also be pleased to have any article' bearing on the question of a Chinese market for Australian wool that you could let me have. You may depend upon tile exhibit not being lost sight of, aud of its obtaining a good position in the forthcoming exhibition, aud 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, &e., • “ Douglas McLean. “To Monckton Synuot, Esq., Melbourne.”

“ December 27. “My Dear Mb. McLean, —Your letter dated the sth inst, on board the s.s. Timgore, off King George Sound, has only just reached me, leaving very little time to reply as fully ;ia I could have wished. However, lam glad to hear you purpose to secure a prominent position in the Paris Exhibition for our little exhibit, and 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 yon at present is a sketch of what has been already done, and 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 For years past I have noticed from every Loudon wool sale many thousands of bales have been withdrawn, to be held over to swell the number of bales, legitimately belonging to the fol-. lowing series, and 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 Ilcrdd, which I , met with a few, years ago, first led me to look to China and Japan as countries admirably adapted in 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. Following up the subject by reading every procurable work upon those countries, I became convinced that apeoplewho werei 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. cost—in the first instance .to prevent interference with the 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 muon to his own surprise, and 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,and 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 with 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 in the way ? lam led to make this suggestion because some Englishman in Shanghai, under the twin cle plume of ‘ Victorian,’ took the trouble of writing a letter to the Melbourne Argus condemning my attempt as preposterous, for reasons which he had previously given to some gentleman in Sydney, who had applied for information respecting a wool trade with China (copy of Victorian letter cut from the Argus 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 now 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 foar that wool will not take its proper place among any manufacturing people. The great object of Australiaus now should be to keep it before the Chinese weavers in as many villages or towns as possible, either by tho 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 in a similar manner ;—Messrs. K. Goltlsbrough and Co,, £SO ; Messrs. H. Cunningham and Co., £25 ; and your own, £5. The total cost to date, including a small parcel of opposaum and rabbit skins as a trial, £6 25., has been 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 tho English Constitution ;’ that part I specially mean respecting the future relations between Australia and China by Prdvost Paradol. There was a telegram in the Argus from New Zealand the othej, day which will interest, and I will cut it out and enclose along with friend ‘ Victorian’s ’ letter ; and with wishing you every success in your new career, —I have, &c., “ Monckton Stnnot.”

“ The yarn sent to China first left Melbourne X7th 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. The yam 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, but I am beginning to fear English influence will cause more trouble than Chinese conservation. 'These last yarns were mado chi fly at the Castlemaine Woollen Company’s mill, a smaller portion at the Ballarat Oonipany’s mill. They were both in grease and scoured ; in fact, I sent a good many pounds of the best yarns I could procure. “ Monokton Stnkot. “Melbourne, December 27, 1877.”