WOOL-SCOURING WORKS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10565, 22 February 1912, Page 3

WOOL-SCOURING WORKS.

ITo The Editor. I Sir, — 3 was interested on reading the account of the recent meeting oi tlio Chamber of Commerce in noticing that one of the members suggested the establishment of wool-scour-ing works as a necessary local industry. The gentleman was evidently not aware of the fact that two such industries were already in existence a few miles from Master ton, and have been for some years past. I refer to my own, situated, at Lower Manaia, and using the Kuripuni creek, which is a water supply capable of dealing with any quantity of wool up to say 50 or 60 bales per week, with, of course, sufficient labour and plant to deal with such a quantity. T at present posses Si plant capable of dealing with about- 1 30 bales per week, and do not u::o one-third of the water power avail-1 able. J have been engaged in the, wool-scouring industry (more or less) in Masterton for the past 28 years—about fifteen years of that with my I father on the Waipoua river, and the j ibalance on my own account for the last seven years at Manaia. The! quantity of wool for scouring has' now reached the small quantity of! less than thirty bales per annum, as far as I am concerned, unless 1 buy a scour on my own account. There is a'so a scouring plant, at Kakara, owned by Messrs .13can 'Bros. The l sheep-fanner prefers to sell, his odd- I meats rather than have them s-;'our-1 ed, for .some reason, which is not j inferior work, as I can show returns ' for wool scoured by me that will com-' pare with the best in the Dominion. The margin of profit- between scouring on commission and selling in

grease is too small to tempt the farmer—about £.l a bale. Years ago my father scoured for Langdale, Tea, and other large stations, now cut up. The few bales possessed by the present owners are not enough to make a good parcel. I think, Mr Editor, the establishment of wool-scouring works here.'is about as necessary as a refrigerating plant at the North Pole, unless it were in the form of a company to buy and scour wools suitable for that purpose. There is, as the Yanks say, "Nothin' doin'." I have at present one client who has stuck to me for over twenty years—the onlv one left.— I am, etc.. E. A. COLLIN.