Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 945, 21 May 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1881.

TFe shall sell to no man Justice or Right; We shall deny to no man Justice or Right; We shall defer to no man Justice or Right.

There is a journal issued in London called Wool-, and, as its name suggests, it is devoted to subjects interesting to wool-growers generally, and also to those whose business, as manufacturers or otherwise, is connected with wool. In a recent issue of Wool an article is set aside specifically to show that the prevailing fashion of the time, in dress material, is greatly against the wool producers; or, in other words, that the determination of the ladies of ton, not to wear textile fabrics made from long-haired wool, has so greatly decreased the demand for that article m the English market, as to cause the English wool producers the most serious anxiety. It appears that prior to 18/4 this wool was extensively used for the introduction of a material of beautiful texture for ladies’ dresses,

but year mentioned a change took place, and the bright lustrous fabrics were displaced by a material which can only be made from such fine short wools as are grown in the Colonies and parts of Europe. Ten years ago the number of sheep in the United Kingdom amounted to 31,403,500, and from that time they went on steadily increasing until in 1874 there were 34,837,597. From that year the decrease has almost been as marked as the increase had been before, until in 1880 the stock was reduced to 30,239,620, whereas, had the former rate of increase been maintained, the number in that year, instead of being about 30,000,000, as above stated, would actually have reached upwards of 40,000,000. According to Wool, farmers can now scarcely obtain half the price lor their wool which they could and did obtain when lustre fabrics were in demand. In proof of this, it is stated that one of the best known Lincolnshire farmers, who used to realise about £1,400 for his yearly clip of wool, could not at the present time obtain for the same weight more than about £6OO. The net clip of British wool in 1880 was 148,729,0611b5., whereas in 1879 it was 153,223,6161b5., showing a decrease last year of not less than 4,504,6351b5. The rate of decrease has been more than twice as rapid in 1880 as in the previous year. The decrease of revenue to the English farmers from wool alone during the last few years has been not less than £6,500,000 per annum. When homegrown wool was in good demand, before the present depression set in, a clip of 153,233,6961b5. would yield, at an average of Is 9d per lb., £13,650,000, whereas at the lowest rates which have recently prevailed (an average of lOd per lb.) not more than £6,500,000 is realised per annum. With these figures before us, we can readily infer that the worsted trade is in a depressed condition. Many mills are idle, and the operatives who were engaged in manufacturing worsteds are suffering great privations. Wool thinks the remedy rests with the landed proprietors, and appeals to the upper classes to assist the home producers by wearing lustre worsted fabrics. For it is much to be feared that, ‘ ‘ unless the ladies of England “ are willing to favor British wool “ goods, one of our principle textile “ industries will sink into msignifi- “ canoe, and the British farmer will “ be discouraged from the cultivation “of the one branch of his business “ that is pre-eminently suited to the “ climate and soil of the kingdom. “ The woollen and worsted industries have always been the mainstay of “ English commerce, and in days gone “ by our monarchs made special enact- “ ments for the encouragement of “ those trades, and our past supremacy “ in those manufactures was largely “ due to the fostering care which, “ from purely patriotic motives, our “ rulers wisely extended to them. “ Nothing but a return to the politic “ system of making ourselves the “ patrons of our own manufacturers “ seems likely to have the effect of re- “ storing our trade in worsted goods “to its former magnitude. If repre- “ sentations were made to her Gra- “ cious Majesty and the Royal Prin- “ cesses, and they could be convinced “of the immense benefit they could “ confer by wearing worsted fabrics, “ their illustrious example would be “ followed by the people generally, “ and fashion doubtless would again “ prevail to the advantage of native “ productions.”