THE WOOL PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1921, Page 8

THE WOOL PROBLEM.

MR. MASSEY'S OPINION. guarantee; to producers. Speaking with reference to the Com- | monwealth Government’s wool realisa- j tion. ■scheme, the Prime Minister ex- i pressed the opinion that it appeared to i be quite sound. There was some differ- ; ence, he said, between the problem con- i fronting the Federal Government and ! that with which the New Zealand Gov- i ernment was faced. The Australian : position in regard to wool was not so j difficult as that of New Zealand. Most i of the Australian wool was fine wool, ! for which there is a good demand. . On i the other hand, there was not the same i demand for New Zealand wool, a con- i siderable portion of which was cross- I bred. That was the difficulty the local I growers were up against at the moment, ; but he had not any doubt but that matters would right themselves in due course. The Government’s guarantee of advances made by banks to woolgrowers, he said, was the result of very careful consideration of the problem, and he believed that the arrangements made would work out satisfactorily. WOOL STOCKS IN BRITAIN. NO CONTINENTAL MARKET. The market for wool in Britain was the subject of some remarks by Mr. R. L. Levin, of Feilding, who returned to the Dominion by the Port Nicholson. Mr. Levin said the people of New Zealand could hardly Realise the condition of affairs in Britain. The recovery of the wool market depended entirely upon

the way the quantity at present held in England was disposed of. At the moment there was absolutely no market for anything, this being due to the absence of an export trade to the Continent. Those people who were formerly Britain’s largest customers were to-day without money and consequently could not import wool or goods manufactured from wool. The result was that many of the Bradford mills were idle or were working part time only. Mr- Levin stated that in his opinion the only way to get over the present difficulty would be for the Imperial Government to sell the wool at present held to manufacturers, at a price which would enable them to produce goods at

a price acceptable to consumers. This, he believes, would be the means of clearing the accumulated stocks of raw material. If this were done it would only be a mater of a season or two before the wool market would right itself, because by that time Continental buyers would again be operating and the increased competition for this product would nat- 1 urally raise the prices. Mr. Levin said he thought the method adopted by flu Australian Government for the purpose of maintaining high prices for the country’s a »ol was quite wrong. It appeared to him to be absolutely solfish, and not in the best interests of the Empire.