WOOL INDUSTRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 194, 30 May 1945, Page 3

WOOL INDUSTRY

CIVILIAN CONSUMPTION. I EFFORT TO SECURE INCREASE. NEW ZEALAND WILL BENEFIT I (Special Correspondent N.Z.P/A.) 1 (Rec. 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, May 29. Arrangements are in hand to increase Britain’s avoo! consumption' on the civilian account in proportion as war orders may diminish with the end of the fighting in Europe. It is also hoped to increase Britain’s total consumption of wool as more workers become available from the forces or munitions production. Cloth manufacturers were officially informed that if they can produce more utility civilian cloth than the quantities allotted to them for the coming four months, they may apply for additional wool supplies. This significant instruction means that there is no longer any quantity curtailment on wool consumption in Britain, but that rationing will chiefly be confined to controling the direction in which wool may be used. There is an urgent national and world need for every yard of production of which British woollen mills are capable, but the strictest supervision will be exercised on the types of production and their, ultimate destination. The net effect of this state of affairs in Britain's wool consumption is the maximum which available labour can handle, and is expected to increase as more workers are allowed to return to factories. It is highly improbable that Britain’s domestic clothing ration will be increased as the result of any larger output of civilian wool goods. Clothing Ration. 4 Recent official announcements hold out no hope of improvement in * the clothing ration for many months ahead and this suggests that any increased : civilian production will go toward reclothing returned forces and liberated people overseas, and importance will be attached to restoring Britain's commercial exports of gool goods at the earliest possible moment. New Zealand would be expected to benefit immediately from any more general allocations in British wool goods exports. Wool circles in Bradford display njuch interest in reports that a movement for lower import duties in the United States as a means of stimulating the- international trade is opposed by the United States wool-growing and manufacturing interests. A proposed 50 per cent reduction in tariffs has brought counter proposals from

the United States woolgrowers who suggest that the United States annual imports of wool be restricted to 30 per cent of America’s total wool consumption in the preceding year, and that the existing duey of 34 cents per lb clean be retained. This figure of 30 per cent, corresponds to the United States average pre-war imports of wool, although her- wartime consumption of imported wool has reached 50 per cent of her total consumption. Similarly, American cloth manufacturers seek to restrict imports of wool cloth to 2£ per / cent, of the* total consumption of such cloths, this being an attempt to offset reduced duties by “limitation.”