WOOL AND MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 May 1921, Page 8

WOOL AND MEAT.

THE FUTURE ASSURED. POSSIBILITIES OF GERMAN TRADE. Palmerston N., Last Night. In the course of his remarks to the Farmers’ Union conference to-day, the president said: While the outlook is black enough there is a gleam of comfort in the fact that practically the whole of the Im-perially-owned meat is now out of the Dominion, that the control prices of our fresh meat have been removed, and that there is a steady and increasing demand for mutton and lamb in London at prices which at the old cost of freezing and delivery would have meant salvation to the producers. It is becoming increasingly evident that, given a return to something approaching normal conditions, the future of New Zealand as a great mutton and lamb producing country is assured.

.The outlook for wool is in a different category, but we must not lose hope. The proposal! submitted to the recent producers’ conference in Wellington to fix a minimum price according to grade was, 1 am satisfied, an attempt in the right direction, and may still, with the assistance of the British-Australian Wool Realisation Association, with whom we propose to co-operate, provide us with some relief. 1 am less inclined than formerly to look for much help to any scheme for selling our wool to Germany, because it has become increasingly apparent that practically every wool-producing country is seeking for German trade, and’it almost appears as if our late enemy would soon be in the position of picking and choosing among the world’s best wools on her owp terms, to the disadvantage of Great Britain and her allies, a position none of us would care to contemplate with equanimity. It is probably unwise to prophesy, however. The settlement of the indemnity may bring about an entire change in the situation. But I am still strongly of opinion that now is not the time to reverse the policy of the past six months, and fling our wool on to a glutted and demoralised market, as has been suggested by some of our leading men. In support of this view there are circumstances which I wish to point out. Tn the first place we have no monopoly of crossbred wools. On the contrary, we produce but a small proportion of the crossbred wool of the world. Secondly, the production of crossbred wools far exceeds the present means for manufacturing it into the world’s requirements. Thirdly, crossbred wool has reached such a low price that nothing can undersell it, and it can consequently be no gamble to hold it.

If we study these considerations we are confirmed in this view because there is evidently an ample supply of the very low-priced'wool—more, in fact, than the world can absorb until the low prices have further stimulated industry. Sir John Higgins has told us that there is enough wool in the world now to keep the whole of the woollen mills of the world, including late enemy countries, operating seven days a week for four years, Vndor such circumstances, to throw our wool on the market would not help the position, and would probably mean that the bulk of it would pass into the hands of the speculator to be used to our disadvantage later on. I am bound to say that this is not the view held by some who have studied the position, and who are now urging that we should get rid of the wool in order to force it into production, but reduced costs of manufacture, and not a disastrous sacrifice of wool, seems to me the first essential in increasing production by manufacture.