THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1923, Page 7

THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

WOOL DRAFT QUESTION. OBJECTION TO WITHDRAWAL. SINISTER POLITICAL MOVE. (By Cable.—Press Association.— Copjrljut.) (Heceivea 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 7. At a meeting of the Wool Exchange, British and Continental buyers resolved ' unanimously to pledge themselves to ( resist to the utmost tho abolition of £1 i ; per hundredweight draft on wool. j i Sir William llaynor, president of the ' Colonial Wool Buyers' Association, presiding, said the "draft allowance did' i not entail any loss to growers, because ! the allowance together with freight and ! expenses was calculated in clean scoured i reckoning, and the price assessed ac- ! cordingly. j Sir John Higgins had started a propaganda to abolish the draft. Some | astounding figures had been put for- , i ward representing, growers' reputed I ; losses by allowing the draft. i j The statement that the draft cost j I pastoralists six million pounds of wool j ; yearly was ' obviously unfair, but it appealed to the growers who are now j giving considerable support to Sir John i Higgins' scheme for holding up supplies , jof raw wool with the apparent inten- | I tion of raising the prices and hampering the consumer. There is strong conviction and fear ! in the minds of financial houses, brokers, and all sorts engaged in the Australian trade here, that underlying the agitation for the abolition was a political move of sinister meaning.— (A. and N.Z.) I