THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7932, 4 January 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1906.

A writer, who has been making round the Bradford manufacturers a special and careful study of the relative merits of New Zealand and Argentine wools, has contributed to a London paper an interesting article on the subject. He declares that in the wool world a keen flght is being waged between New Zealand and River Plate crossbred wool, and that it is a littlo hard to say which is going to take premier position. Eaoh country's wool, he says, is very good in its place, but there is no doubt in the minds of Yorkshire manufacturers as to which possesses

the sounder manufacturing properties. In point of productive capacity Argentina undoubtedly claims first position, but among wool users quantity is not such an important factor as qua'-ifcy, and it is here that New Zealand wiJl always haro the odds over the River Plate. It is on the ultimate working results of the two wools that everything depends. This really is a manufacturer's question, but it directly affects the grower. * * * * Ne.v Zealand wool si ill holds premier position There seems to be something about the New Zealand produce that the Argentine wool does not possess, and it is that special quality, or rather the extra amount of elasticity and softness of handle i the New Zealand de scription that causes it to be preferred to that from Argentine. New Zealand wool has always been identified with quality, elasticity, softness of handle, and good feeling properties, aud no other country's production can claim equality in these particulars. "Given exactly the same quality and the same clean yield .for two parcels of wool, one being grown in Canterbury -and .toe other at the River Plate, and." auys thf> writer, "i dare hazard the opinion that a fractional better price will ba made for the New Zealand article than the wool from the Argentine, The price for Buenos Ay res crossbred, for the finest and lightest conditioned parcels, when coarse wool boomed last Septemboi, was not as high as was made for i\ew Zealand wools, that alone being a proof of which way men feel iu regard to the two descriptions of <ffossbreds." * * * * Experiences in the West Riding of Yorkshire enables him to say that wool fabrics, when made out of Argentine croasbreds, always handle more hard, brittle, rough, ana unelastic than the fabrics made out of New Zealand orossbreds, and this is the worst feature in connection with Ayres wool. Not lotfg ago a man who has spent all his life in a Bradford wool-combing mill was asked his experiences in handling and combing River Plate crossbred wools. Bin experience harmonised exactly with that of other people, that Argentine wool, when combed into tops, does not draw so freely as does a similar quality top when made out of New Zealand wool. A. good practical spinner of crossbred yarns, if he had two sample balls of tops laid before him—say, oho combed out of New Zealand and the other out of an average Buenos Ayrta wool, could tell with perfect ease, without any previous knowledge, whioh was which. Even cloth manufacturers say that Argentine wools produce an altogether more rough, hard and boardy fabrio than when New Zealand wool ia employed, and this latter will give the New Zealander a pull over his South American opponent. It cannot be said that New Zealand wools are better grown in staple, but that staple is more soft, iiind supple an 3 elastic; though in point of length of staple, density, strength and general character, the Argentine produce is equal in these respects to the New Zealand article, and an improvement—if possible —should be made on the line suggested.

11l point of fairness to Buenos Ayres the writer admits tbat for oertain classes of fabrio they are better adapted than colonial orossbreds. In some descriptions of dress goods, and particularly costume serges, a crisp, sharp handle is wanted, and for this class of goods Argentine orossbreds fill the bill nicely but in the production of tweeds, worsted coatings, vicunas and the like, where "soft handle" is such an important essential, then a manufacturer wants colonial wools. "At the same time," he says, 'let no one suppose that New Zealand orossbreds are not going to have to encounter the competition of South American orossbreds, for more keenly than ever are the two articles going to oppose each other in the markets of the world. The introduction of the best Eng. lish blood into Kiver Plate flooks is still proceeding apace and aided materially by extra forage crops, and a most scientific handling of sheep, together with a growing feeling on the part of estanoia holders to prepare their wools for market in Australian fashion, it shows that every nerve is being strained to produce wool of such a oharaoter as will enable Argentine pastoralists to claim a position equal to that of their New Zealand competitors.