The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1920. WOOL PROFITS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3541, 31 July 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1920. WOOL PROFITS.

With which is incorporated "The Taihape Post and Waimarino News."

There is a controversy in connection with the disparity between the price of raw wool and the cost of woollen clothing. Despite a great deal of specious argument the fact remains that the obvious desparity has not reasonably and logically been accounted for. To listen tw some people it woudl have to be believed that the price farmers receive for their wool has little or no bearing on the cest of producing woollen goods. But surely if 1000 per cent, on represents the manufacturers' rightful loading for profits, why is not the man who finds the land, labour, and sheep entitled to something more. Interested people bowl about Increasing the cost of raw wool while., apparently, price of wool has only a very negligible effect in determining the cost of woollen goods. It is- difficult to understand should cost so much more to after it .leaves the growers' hands Jfha| it does before, yet there are .peopl| busily trying to argue that it isvperj feetly simple, as plain as a ; pikestaff| that if wool is sold at pre : war prices it will only make about 'threepence difference on the, manufactured pound of woollen goods. It was mentioned in Parliament, on Thursday, that the Wool-growers J Association chairman had stated that it was very commonly reported that New Zealand mills had received permission to purchase New Zealand wool commandeered by the Imperial authorities, and that they had taken advantage of that permission to purchase large quantities for present and future use; that they exported large quantities of manufactured goods made from that bought at commandeer price, .and were charging unreasonably high prices to the New Zealand people; that those nulls did in fact do a 'large profiteering business/ victimising- the New Zealand public. A request was made in Parliament tjhat opportunity should be given by the Government to m ill own - ers to disprove the reports :f untrue, or that, if true, restitution should be made by them. The report in the House went on to state, "A very grave scandal exists. It is a great scandal if the companies a*e allowed to profit by such conductor, it is a scandal if there be no grounds for such a report.'' That puts the issue very plainly; there i.s a scandafl one way or the other, and woo'-growcrs and public have a just right to know on which side the offenders are ranged. If mill-owners are maligned they should urge that the. Government investigate with a view

to proving their innocence; if the reports are not controvertible it 's quite understandable why no investigation is asked for. II is undeniable that as the fiftcenpence a pound is not the full price paid by the Imperial authorities, it :? positively robbing the grower to make fifteen-pence alt the money he is to receive from wool so'd in this Dominion. If growers are entitled to half the profits over fifteen-pence a pound paid for wool sold by the British Goverment. so they are justly entitled to receive a price from New Zealand millowners which' is equal to that received on wool sold in Britain, that at least, if nof move. Then, in addition to the huge sum the New Zea'and Government is credited with by the Home Government as half profits on sales there should be a very considerable accretion on the woo! sold to millowners *n fho Dominion. If not, why not? Why should millowners in New Zealand get the farmers' wool at fiftcenpence while according to all reports millowners in England pay from five to ten shillings a pound for it, to say nothing of a further advantage on the British manufacturers in the shape of a very heavy, and very I unjust, customs duty- It is ©verlast- j 'ngly being proclaimed by the Premier that farmers are too heavily tax- I ed and yet, if these reports are true,

he is doing nothing to prevent farmers being taken down through their wool being sold to local millers at commandeered price. Until the reports mentioned in Parliament are clearly shown to be false farmers can onlysay that they are getting anything but a "square deal." Why the Board of Trade is not instructed to exhaustively investigate in face of the ''grave scandal" that, obtains is past understanding, and failure to investigate can only be taken as an indication that there Is some truth in what Dame Rumour is freely bandying about. The move upward of the' value of woollen mill shares since the commencement of the war gives cause for suspicion. Share values no doubt reflect the profits being made to some extent; they are quoted now from sixty to one hundred per cent, above pre-war quotations, and cannot be bought at that because holders will not sell. Our purpose, primarily, is not so much to emphasise the volume of profits woollen mills axe making as it is to draw attention to the meanness to woolgrowers as reflected in vthc reports brought before Parliament. Fifteeupenee is not the minimum price paid by Britain for wool, neither should fifteenpence be the minimum paid for wool taken by New Zealand mills. Surely that should be self-evident and not any cause for cavil. To be precise the commandeered price is not fifteenpence, as the highest price for merino wool is fourteen and a-half pence; for superior half-bred fourteenpenee, and lambs wool thirteen pence. Eeports mentioned in Parliament should, if untrue, be clearly refuted, because to allow millowaers to stock up to their limit of storage, before the commandeer was raised, at such prices, is an injustice to fiarmers- no words can furnish deserved condemnation of. At a recent conference, of farmers Sir James Wilson made the position of the wool growers the subject of considerable comment; He urged that farmers were not getting what they were entitled to, that is, if woollen manufacturers were only getting what they had a just right to receive. It seems a matter that is incapable of demonstration, therefore it is in the beat interests of all eon&erned that the government should order an exhaustive investigation with a view to having a "grave scandal" removed from the trade existing between farmers, wool spinners, and the general public. It is obvious that-if millers' profits are increased by. thousands per cent, the men who grow the wool are not being fairly treated if only paid the bare commandeer schedule price as arranged they should.-be paid by the Government.