A SUCCESS

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 27

A SUCCESS

SYDNEY WOOL WEEK EXTENSION NEXT YEAR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 21. So great has been the success of Wool Week, which has just concluded in Sydney, that already plans are being made to extend it throughout the Commonwealth next year, jind possibly overseas as well. The great interest shown in the campaigh has convinced the organisers that the people generally are realising that wool is the real mainstay of Australia. Perhaps it was natural that the country districts should have done all in their power to make Wool Week a success, but the response in the city was a revelation. The window displays exceeded anticipations, and, what was far more important, so did the demand for wool. Many of the stores found it necessary to increase their staffs in the departments where knitting wool was sold. One firm had to increase the staff fivefold. All through the day there were crowds around the counters, and it is said that not for many years has there been so much knitting in Sydney as there is to-day. In addition, the demand for woollen underclothing showed a great advance, and one firm sold out of such articles. In short, the people seemed suddenly to find their “ wool sense,” or was it a wool conscience?

All this speaks volumes for the power of advertising, even in times of depression. The industry is of such importance to the Commonwealth that it is surely worth advertising on the national scale that is proposed for next vear. Sydney is recognised as the premier wool-selling city of the world. The wool stores alone have cost £1,600 000 and the paid-up capital of the various wool-selling houses is £9,300,000. When wool prices were at their zenith a few years ago the proceeds of the wool sales in Sydney totalled £25,000.000 and in the Commonwealth £6o,ooo,ooo.’The low price era has brought forward a cron of schemes for .fixing prices artificially, but those vitally interested in the trade recognise that its rehabilitation can only be effected by giving free play to the law of supply and demand. If the people have drifted away from wool then surely it is the duty of the industry to see that they are shown the f° f „7 th T^. Wa , ys - That is tbe object of Wool Week, and the object that seems to have been achieved. The downward trend of prices seems to have been, definitely checked, and experts are convinced that brighter days are ahead loi those who grow wool . A member of the Graziers’ Association "! ■ l South , w ales this week emphased the point that Wool Week should be extended throughout the Empire. New Zealand and South Africa ere interested in the prosperity of the industry and they should do their share of publicity work. If the campaign could be extended to Britain, so much Won? r ; Perhaps at the Empire Wool Conference in Melbourne shortly a scheme would be devised where all the wool producing parts of the Empire could share the cost of world publicity in favour of wool. publicity