WOOL CONSUMPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 152, 29 June 1926, Page 4

WOOL CONSUMPTION.

IS IT DECLINING 1 According to our San Francisco correspondent the present wool selling seaeon in the U.S.A. has brought more than the usual amount of alarming reports regarding the lack of demand tor woollen goods and raw wool. The sweeping unofficial statements made by those seeking to lower the grower's idea of wool values have been most disconcerting. It must be recognised that, to a considerable extent, these bearish sentiments have had an apparent basis in official Government statistics relating to wool consumption by American mills. Great emphasis has also been placed upon the increased use of substitutes for wool, and especially of rayon. The changes of styles and the alarming shortening of ladies' garments have been held up to growers and others to show the cause of a lowering in wool prices.

A Government official recently gave out that there has been a decline of 113.000,000 pounds of wool, or 26 per cent in the amount of wool used for clothing purposes in the United States in 1925. as compared with 1922.

"The National Wool Grower" has made a special study of the actual statistics, and "discovers that the supposed decline in wool consumption is greatly less than published, inasmuch as 612 manufacturers reported in 1922. whereas but 525 sent in statistics in 1925.