MARKETING OF WOOL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 211, 19 June 1933, Page 6

MARKETING OF WOOL

CONTROL BOARD OPPOSED.

GRADING AND BINNING.

STATEMENT BY BROKERS. (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, This Day. . The Wooltaokers'* Association has issued an official statement bearing on discussions m the Press regarding wool control board, standardisation of grades and binning. "it is desirable" the statement says, "that tlie views oi the Association should be made known so that farmers during the period of hard times may not be induced to take any false step. The interests oi farmers and brokers are identical,. but the brokers do not desire to see Government interference oi; a board of control creep into business now efficiently, conducted. It is recognised the world over that the system of marketing wool here and in Australia is the best in the world. This was-recognised at the Empire Wool Conference at Melbourne in 1931, when growers were present from Australia, teouth Africa and New Zealand." The statement says: "The industry can control itself and the . business ' acumen of brokers,- buyers, growers, and financiers does not leave room for any boaixjL however composed, to interfere with advantage to the grower. The. law or supply and demand and world-wide competition, which is obtainable through the means of the wool sales here and in London, determine in the only business, practical, and economic way the price which the grower gets. "In- regard to binning, there is a point ' which should be made quite clear, ; Wool is not on all fours with butter, meat or hemp. It is, difficult 1 to conceive how butter could be marketed except through factories, and as far as meat is concerned, unless sheep are sold upon the hoof, they must be graded before being paid for. The grading of hemp has never been so satisfactory owing to personal equation and the fact that the growth of the fibre varies in .various districts, just as wool in the Dominion differs in growth, staple and character in different provinces. This in itself would render standardisation of the grades of, wool in New Zealand a difficult problem, in all these cases the number of grades involved is a bagatelle. The case of wool is different. The ' Bawra' scheme in Australia had 840 grades, and some New Zealand entries require grades running into several hundreds. It is pointed out, in contrast to butter, that all wool has some .value and finds a market according to quality. There are buyers for all lots, whether well or indifferently classed, skirted or unskir.ted. .''To bin or not to bin is a question to be dealt with from day to day on its merits," and brokers give free and impartial advice to the grower. Binning should therefore b 6 left to the discretion of the farmer and grower. Regarding the suggestion that if some compulsion were used to bin small clips l it would give brokers a larger quantity of wool to work upon and enable them to make larger parcels, this doubtless would be the case, but it would be introducing a bad principle and using a sledge-hammer to break a nut. Compulsory binning will be obnoxious and anathema tb most business men and to the farmers themselves." The aeport concluded by saying that brokers would strongly object to Government officials being employed in their stores, and anything that savours of Government interference would meet with the strongest opposition.