The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8, 1920. THE WOOL EXPLOITATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3648, 8 December 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8, 1920. THE WOOL EXPLOITATION.

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

It is quite in the natural order o* I things that people in all classes, from the Prime Minister down, should be. uttering speculative opinions with respect to the future of wool. It was stated in the British House of Commons one day last week that the Im- | perial Authorities were anxious not t 0 arouse the suspicions of the woolgrowers of New Zealand and Australia by dropping wool prices too sharply. The Lord Commissioner of the Treas- , ury made the situation fairly clear j in saying that to allow the market to be forced down by British wooi buyers might be regarded by the Dominions as inimical to their interests. He admitted, frankly, that wool values had, artifically, been kept low from 1916 to 1919, and that prices were now 10 per cent, below pre-war rates. Wool-growing Is a very vital matter to New Zealand and. with the truth about wool as told by the Lord Commissioner of the British Treasury what becomes of the multitudinous charges against sheepfanners of exacting high profits that they might secure more than a fair share of the fruits of labour? The British Government has kept wool prices to ridiculously below what could have been got in the open market, right through the war. The British Government- did not relax its hold upon wool when, in 1918, •■, an Armistice was signed; it held on to New : Zealand wool until the possibility of making high profits had passed and then cast growers on to an open market which offered ten per cent, less than pre-war prices. But, from experience of New Zealand sales, buyejrs are ruthlessly forcing prices down to something like 40 per cent.;_ and this is after preventing growers from participating in markets wlien something could have been returned enabling subsequent taxation of a semi-oppressive character to be met. It may justly be said that no section of industry, including labour, has received such consistently unfair marketing treatment asi woolgrowers, and: to-day they are offered sixpence a pound for it while shearers, are demanding hitherto unprecedented high rates of pay for removing the sixpenny stuff from the sheep's back. Is the British Government free from suspicion of having aggravated the wool-growers? difficulties? If one penny per pound on wool means an additional million of pounds profit does not eight-pence per pound orr wool mean a loss of eight millions or pounds to wool growers, virtually to the people of New Zealand? Probj ably, for the first time in its history this Dominion's exports do not nearly total its imports; the people are i spending much more than they are earning; they are living upon their i borrowing, or they ai'e spending their last shilling. Something of that kind j can only Ogcur when more, is spent ! than earned. Indications are not j wanting that the British Government ! realises that wool-buyers have exhibited the limit in human greed in trying to force growers to accept sixponce. Mr Massey has been in communication with the Director of Eaw Materials, who informs him by cable that demand for crossbred wool is j very limited; also that the Director- | General will fix the limits for greasy j wool at. the December sales at the i net New Zealand appraisement i prices without any addition for i charges, which range from fourteen-and-a-half pen c e to seventeen pence. It seems apparent, then,' that the Authorities can force wool vultures to pay more than the sixpence offered here, bu f t..why, should wool prices be forced down tq a point seeing that.at whatever: prices is paier for it no difference is reflected in j lower prices of woollen goods? Once it gets into the clutches of the vulture pack on go the hundreds, and even thousands, per cent. A few days ago we urged that the- British wool i vultures should be side-tra<»ke<l on the. way to the continental market for crossbred wools. They have the audacity to want wool grown in New Zealand for sixpence that they may sell it in Germany for five shillings.

About the time we were writing me Minister of Industries in South Africa was. telling a large gathering of farmers, at Bloemfontein that "the only possible remedy for the present stringency was to send their wool to the Central Powers. The Government already had two schemes in viewfirst, to advance wool to Germany oh the security of former enemy property in South Africa; secondly, to exchange wool for German manufactures. A Special Commission of three were at present in Europe in connection with these schemes. "This discovers to New Zealand how the South African Government looks after the interests of its farmers ane? people. There is no sixpenny wool in South Africa for the buying vultures to pounce upon; South Africans are cutting out the middleman extortioner's and a *"e going direct to their customers; why is this Dominion's Government not doing likewise? Why has not the New Zealand Government a Special Commission now in Europe with a view to selling wool at hundreds per cent, above what the middlemen have tried to mase them accept? The one commodity above all others that has disastrously slumped is wool, New Zealand's | chief article of export. Farmers, a® a rule, do not spend time in unravelling market intricacies; they accept the facts as the market presents them, but the Administration they ' have assisted to elect to conduct the business of the country should surely see that this Dominionfs profluce finds as good a market as produce from any other British Dominion. Wool-growers have every cause to question very closely the wool- situation as it is presented to them. The ' South African Minister of Industries has found the only possible remedy for ruinous wool prices, and that is to sell the wool direct to those nations whose people are most in need of it, and secure thereby a bette* price, by hundreds per cent. The British Lord Commissioner leaves no doubt about the determination of buyers to force down prices, but so as not ,ft> exasperate growers he advises them not to be too precipitate, but to slow the process, it will be none the less sure. From his guarded utterances' as a servant of the Government, Sir Thomas MacKensle seems to have left no doubt about what jugglery is taking place with New Zealand wool and other pro- | ducts in Britain, and he gives some indication of the wholesome disgust with which he is fillftd at what is officially and otherwise t taking place. The question of inviting Sir Thomas to go to Europe as a Special Commissioner to look after markets for New Zealand produce, has already been publicly mooted, and this subject seems to be worth the consideration of every producer in the Dominion. Farmers would do themselves no injury in gatheing fullest Information, jthen, intaking some definite action on the lines indicated by what has transpired at meetings already held elsewhere.