IMPURITIES IN WOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8868, 31 October 1907, Page 3

IMPURITIES IN WOOL.

WOOL GROWERS VISIT BRADFORD. From Our London Correspondent. LONDON, September 14. A large number of gentlemen interested in the Australian and New Zealand wool-growing industry visited .Bradford bji special invitation last week. Among them were a good representative number of Australasian growers, the head of important and influential institutions, London selling brokers, and well-known firms engaged in the Bradford trade. The occasion was the holding of a conferto talk over the vexed question 'of vegetable matter in wool, hoping thereby that growers especially would estimate the importance of this subject, and would use every influence in their power to prevent in future what is becoming a very serious state of affairs. Among the New Zealanders present were: — Messrs W. ActonAdams, of Tarndale, Canterbury; Herbert Acton-Adams, of Tipapa, Canterbury; Otway R. Falkiner; ■Captain Charles Wood; A. W. Kennedy, Poverty Bay. There were also -a large number of prominent Australians and London representatives of British firms interested in the trade. The president extended to the visitors a cordial welcome to the city of Bradford. After the reception the company were taken in a dozen carriages to the works of Messrs Isaac Holden and Sons and to the ware- ■ house of the Bradford Dyers' Associ- • ation, Limited, where they were . shown the deleterious effects of vegetable fibre getting mixed with wool, • owing to the packing of wool in inferior jute bags. A conference was then held at the offices of the Dyers' Association. The president said that -at Messrs Holden's works they had . seen the impurities in the wool, whilst in that building, through the courtesy of the • Bradford Dyers' Association they had observed the effects of those impurities in the finished piece goods. " It was not for him to suggest a remedy, but he would call upon Mr Fawcett, who was chairman of the wool trade section of the Chamber, and of the spe- • cial committee in reference to vegef" table matter in wool, and also Lord Mayor-elect of the city of Bradford, to open the conference. Among the speakers was Mr W. •Acton-Adams who said that he had been in New Zealand since 185 C, -and had farmed very extensively. He did not think that a better quality of bag would entirely get rid of the difficulty. The bags at pre- . sent cost them about 2s each, but if the Bradford firms would let them know what they required, and what would uvercome the difficulty, they would be only too pleased to adopt their suggestions. A little extra • cost in the bags would not stand in their way. From the speeches which followed it appeared that the Australians realised for the first time the far/reaching effects of the presence of . jute, hemp and other vegetable matter in the wool, and sympathised very . keenly with the difficulties the manufacturers and traders of Bradford had to contend with. The growers were quite ready to fall in with any practical proposals that could be made to obviate the difficulties, and • suggestions were made that specimens of the vegetable matter found in wool, together with pieces of the materrial, showing the effects of the .same in the finished article, should be sent out to Australia and New . Zealand for exhibition to the growers. It was also suggested that a joint committee of growers, brokers, importers, manufacturers and others should be formed to consider what steps should be taken to overcome the difficulties. At the works of Messrs Holden, I should mention, the representatives were shown many samples of wool • affected a-id contaminated with vegetable matter. Several bales were selected haphazard, and were opened .just as they had come from Australia and New Zealand, all the delegates -seeing at once innumerable bits of loose hemp and string attached to the raw material. The wool that had been packed next to the inside of the tare could be seen with hundreds of bits of loose stuff, just like a man's scrubby beard, hanging to it. Several pointed out that no sorter in the world could remove these if he worked a whole day at one bale. In other samples it was plain to be seen j that gross carelessness had been manifest in the baling of wool on the J station, and in scouring works. A ' very careful and minute examination took place, all the Australasian growers realising for the first time the curse of hemp and string being found in wool. In one or two cases a handful of sweepings, containing large ; quantities of packing twine and other rubbish, had been found inside the middle of a bale. Afterwards at the rooms of the Bradford Dyers' Association, Ltd., a larire number of dyed pieces was laid out for inspection. I am informed that once loose bits of hemp and string get through the scouring operation, they become so broken up as to be lost sight of altogether until they uppear in the dyed and finished fabric. Hemp being a vegetable fibre will not dye at all, hence pieces come up having in them innumerable bits nfgrey fibres which before they can be made merchantable, have to be "burled out'"-—a most costly and tedious job. At a luncheon which followed, Mr Acton-Adams said that the colonies would fully appreciate the enterprise of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce in endeavouring to rectify what appeared to be a fault in the packing and shipping of wool. It was such efforts as the Chamber were making, he said, to bring producers and consumers together, that would enable them to keep their national interests intact without depending too much upon foreign assistance. Altogether the meeting separated with every hope that by their efforts the difficulties would very speedily be overcome.