OUTLOOK FOR WOOL

Shannon News, 13 January 1925, Page 1

OUTLOOK FOR WOOL

CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE. DEMAND FOR CROSSBREDS. MANUFACTURER’S REVIEW. Confidence in the, future of the wool trade was expressed by Sir Thomas Henderson, of the woollen manufacturing firm of Innes, Henderson and Co., of Hawick, Scotland, who arrived at Auckland the other day by the Maheno. Sir Thomas confessed himself puzzled to explain the fall in prices at New Zealand sales, where the offerings were chiefly crossbred, because he thought the extremely h,igh prices being obtained for merinos would force manufacturers to take more of the coarser qualities. Ever since the war the rage had been for the finest merinos as the demand was for the finest and softest materials. British factories cpuld turn out a very fine article from the better grades of crossbreds, however, and Sir Thomas anticipated that more attention would be turned to this class of wool. Trade had been very bad, but it was picking up and the future promised to be quite good.

One of the factors favouring the demand for crossbred and responsible for the rapid absorption of the great surplus left after the war was the fashion for women’s knitted garments. Such a fashion had a greater influence on the trade as a whole than people imagined. Moreover, the use of wool generally had greatly increased. The amount used by the world per head of population was probably 50 per cent, more than 25 years ago, a'nd there was also the increase in population to be taken into account.

Most countries were using more wool, and some new countries, especially in the Far East, had entered the market as consumers. Against this had to be set the fact that the world’s clip had decreased owing to the serious fall in the numbers of sheep. There was talk of substitutes for wool, such as artificial silk and dilution of wool with cotton, but these substitutes would not serve the same purpose as wool, especially in the colder countries. Sir Thomas concluded that the future of the wool trade, both for the farmer and the manufacturer, could be regarded with confidence.