The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1883. WOOLLEN FACTORY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 986, 19 January 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1883. WOOLLEN FACTORY.

A letter, was recently published in our colnrans from a correspondent sighing himself “ Gian Aber,” indicating the direct and indirect advantages to be obtained from the establishment of a woollen factory in this district. The proposition is no Utopian idea, nor would its practical fulfillment be a mere experiment. A pretty safe gauge to the commercial, importance of a place is to be bad in its local industries. A land endowed with nature’s finest gifts, which freely-yields to the husbandman abundance of crops and rich pastures for his -flocks, after all but provides the- raw material for the industrial classes. It is the manufacturer- who'turns the grain into floor, the wool into fabric, fit for nee,, and who tans the skins into leather ready for the artisan, that makes the profit. Where we export the mere raw article and import for our own consnmption the manufactured material, we are contributing towards the prosperity of others but not of ourselves. Mercantile relations are unevenly balanced to the disadvantage of the original exporter. The manufacture of woollen fabrics in New Zealand is one of its most .important industries. Hitherto the South -Island has had a monopoly of this class of establishment, but those in the North are now awakening to a sense of action, and the early formation of a company in Auckland is . probable. Only recently the people of Milton, Otago, appointed a committee and proposed to raise a capital of £34,000, in £1 shares, to start a factory. The remunerative business done by those factories in existence is an incentive to commence operations in other places. The Kaiapoi company, Canterbury, started with the modest, capital of £15,000, but soon found that that was not sufficiently large to carry on the business with success; so it was increased until the capital is £JOO,OUO, with £75,000 paid up, ami they employ at the present time 473 hands. Irrespective of the direct benefit the district receives, the shareholdeis get per cent, interest on their money. The Roslyn factory, Otago, was first star'ed as a private enterprise by Messrs Ross and Glentjenniug in 1878. Since then the size of the mill has been . doubled; there is now three limes the original quantity of machinery, ami they cannot supply the demand for goods by working three shifts a day. The Mosgiel (Otago) factory was started by Mr

A. J. Burns, and afterwards formed into a company.' The factory has made the place, and is paying a dividend of' 10 per cent. It will be seen that, with judicious management, hot only are large profits to be made on the capital invested, but there are ulterior advantages beneficial to the community wherever a factory is founded. In advocating the formation of a company in this district for the' manufacture of woollen fabrics we need only refer to our position and products. The wool exported is the staple product of the place, and to re-purchase it in a manufactured state we have to pay manufacturers and middle charges -sufficient to absorb all the profits of the grower. As pointed out by our correspondent this money sent out of the place riiight well be kept in it. The establishment of a factory would necessarily lead"to the employment of a large number of hands, an influx of population would follow, other industries would be encouraged to start, and at once the place .would become one of commercial importance. It is not a mere airy vision built on theory, but the certain material outcome of a project which has only to be entered upon to prove its stability.