WOOL - GATHERING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 113, 22 August 1941, Page 43

WOOL - GATHERING

a bridge hand or a sewing session. You ask a question. It hangs in the air, unanswered. You look up and notice that your friend’s face is a mask of noncomprehension, and that her eyes have that restless, longing, faraway look. Along what strange paths has her spirit borne her? What unsatisfied quest takes her so far from you. in spirit? But you know the answer. In imagination she traverses the High Street. She enters the General Store. In a few moments she returns, still with that unsatisfied longing in her eyes. She passes five shops, then turns into Woolworth’s. She comes out, empty-handed. She crosses the street to enter a small draper’s. No result. The General Store. She emerges with a worried frown and a tin of cocoa. "Three No Trumps." "No bid." vss. it’s in the middle of

An interrogative silence. She comes to with a start and a blush of guilt. "So sorry! What’s everybody gone? I’m afraid I’ve been wool-gathering." — From Shop to Shop This proves that woolgathering is the wrong word. It should be wool-gleaning. The process consists of trekking mournfully from shop to shop and, like Ruth, pouncing gratefully upon other people’s leavings. In this way one can get quite a collection of wools. But this is not the

same thing as a collection of wool. With a collection of wool you can make a sane garment like ‘a man’s cardigan or a baby’s bootee. With a collection of wools you can make an antimacassar. And antimacassars are no longer welcome, even if classified as Comforts for the Forces. | Strength in Unity | Our only hope for a solution of the problem lies in unity. We must organise our friends into Wool-Gleaning Combines and pool our resources. The Wool-Gleaning Combine has distinct possibilities. In the first place a system of patrols could be organised to ensure that every wool-selling shop in the city could be visited at least once an hour. When a supply of wool arrived the officer of the combine could buy it up, to be shared'among the other members. The method at present in vogue of prowling round the town until you see a crowd outside a shop and then working your way to the front: is, by comparison, haphazard in the extreme. Moreover, it gives an unfair ad-

vantage to the housewife or the woman of independent means who can spend a whole morning scouring the shops and looking for a crowd. By. the time the business girl’s lunch hour has come the crowd has dispersed, so that she has no way of even knowing where the wool was, let alone buying any. The Combine could, moreover, put itself on a sound profit-making basis by establishing corners in wool. A _ well-

organised espionage system would enable it to buy up all supplies as soon as they care in. It would then proceed to raise prices. In a short time it would be able to dictate terms. All the women of New Zealand would be on their knees before it. Its members would become the most affluent and respected persons in the community. Wool-gatherers of the World, Unite'

M.

B.