The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. MONDAY, MAY 31. MORE WOOLLEN MILLS WANTED.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3500, 31 May 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

MONDAY, MAY 31. MORE WOOLLEN MILLS WANTED.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

One of the most impressive lessons of the war learned by this young country is not going unheeded. It was only a natural sequence to experiences people have endured and noted that they should desire to place themselves, in case of another war, as far as possible beyond the reach of prohtccis, who emptied their banking accounts and purses and still left them inconveniently short of the necessaries of life. Primary products were taken from Dominion producers at a justly remunerative price, but woollen mill owners and others used to an unreasonable extent those opportunities ihe requisition of wool by the Impel ml authorities gave them for exploitation. They had farmers fastened down to a price they could buy at, but when farmers wanted some of their wool back again in the form of clothing they had to pay hundreds per cent, to millers and others for manufactuiing

it. As we lizwe said, it was only natural that woollen )]‘.'fll‘|Uf‘d<.”(lll‘Gl'Es might have expected 11 Competition they‘. in their org)’ of exploitation, never had time to eontemplate. 'l‘.hall competition is already within sight, and new woollen mills. nre both in the prospective und con.struet.ive stages. While woollen mill owners were deelziring they were not n::1l(in;_»; nnren:‘.ollzll:)le profits the value of their slmres, the true profit bar-oineter, doubled in value and yet none could he bought, (tle:u'ly indienting that there w:l.<i.~iometlling more in reserve than what a~.lppe:u-ed on the hTll]'.‘E2lCC in the way of profits am] profiitqnaking. When the first woollen mill erected in this country was under construction, one or two pertinent, salient. features were pointed out, One was that it. would prove more conducive 'to luiglieist prices for raw wool, and lowest cost of handling, manut'a.cturing and marl<et..ing to have woollen mills established in localities where the raw material could he most econoniioally collected and the. finished :'rti(.-.le mo.~‘t. advantageously distribut. ed. To get over the lower wage en. abling wool to be more cheaply .ma,nu_ factored in other countries, the people of this Dominion consented to a pro. teotivo duty being levied" upon imported woollens that would equalisg the difference in wages, putting New Zea, land mills on 3 similar footing, as re.

gards profits, with mills in Britain and elsewhere. It need not ‘be ,aske‘t_l what millowners have done To recompense the people of this country, for enabling them to put their mills on a. good paying basis, the price of a suit of clothes and the cost Of a yard of baby flannel speak volumes for this country’s misplaced cbnfidence. Woollen mill shares have soared to at least one hundred per cent‘. higher ‘than their face value, and what woollen clothing wool producers require, made from their justly priced Wool, has unjustly soared to far greater price heights. Taking the protestations of InilL~owners as perfectly disclosing the situation now, and during the war, it is undeniable that there -are not sufficient Woollen mills in New Zealand to make clothing" necessary for lits people’s requirements; the possible maximum -output of present mills is hopelessly inadequate to clothe the people who have been heavily taxed for years that those Woollen manufacturers might; receive adequate rcmuneration for capital invested, not that they might accumulate hordes of riclies, while forcing people by their greed to go half-nalked. For the past five years woollen mill owneis have never ceased declaring that. they were doing their utmost to supply the people’s needs, and that they were up against a practical impossibility. The means at their disposal could not" be made to meet the demands -of New Zealand people for clothing, -and they knew what they were talking about. ’.l"he' people have listened to them‘, have ‘taken the warning, and have set about building woollen mills in greater numbers so that there may be enough for internal needs and something to export. ,