THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2276, 5 November 1891, Page 4

THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY.

In moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet at the annual meeting of the Wellington Woollen Company, Mr T. K. Macdonald, chairman of directors, said that the position of the woollen industry in Kew Zealand at the present moment was worthy of some serious attention. The larger nulls, like that of Wellington, possessing abundant capital and experienced employes, were, he understood,, doing a satisfactory and payable business. Two or three smaller mills, however, were stated not to be quite so prosperous as their best friends could desire. The prosperity of the industry wasj .lai’gely bound up in the question of demand, and here competition with the imported article formed a factor of considerable moment. The increase of the tariff some three years ago did not appear to have diminished the importation of woollen goods as anticipated when the change was made. On the contrary, our imports of woollen piece goods and blankets were increasing year by year. It was not a good thing for the colony to allow many hundreds of skilled artisans to drift away to other countries because of a dearth of employment, when in our importation of over £300,000 worth of * apparel ” there was wage earning power fir several thousands of our own people if the importation were greatly diminished, more especially when we had the undeniable fact that the colony was able to produce a manufactured article aud supply it to the consumer at a fair aud reasonable price. With regard to trade outside the colony in collection with the woollen industry he regretted to say the statistics as to the export trade did not show any satisfactory increase. So far as the Wellington mill was concerned the business outlook for 1892 was of an extremely gratifying character.