WOOL FABRIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 207, 2 September 1938, Page 14

WOOL FABRIC.

SYNTHETIC FIBRE. IMPORTS INTO N.Z. GROWERS ARE ALARMED, (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHU 1\( H, this day. Extensive shipments of German synthetic wool fabric, which will be landed in (. hristchurch before Christmas, are causing concern to woolgrowers, who claim that it is suicidal for this "Zellwolle" to be imported info Xew Zealand. It was recently reported from Dunedin that a foiei»ner had completed a tour of the Dominion, taking orders for synthetic fabric, and that he had booked shipments amounting to many thousands of yards. Samples of the fabric, which were shown to a rejiorter, are indistinguishable from genuine worsted. Zellwolle is composed of half wool and half synthetic matter, mainly cellulose, manufactured from refuse. An Italian variety, known as "Cisalfa," is similar in composition. In both these countries, the civilian population is required by law to wear clothes made from the artificial fibres. Cheapness of manufacture makes Zellwolle about a third cheaper than genuine fabric. Effect on Local Mills. Growers feel that it would be madness to allow Zellwolle or other synthetic fabrics to be imported into New Zealand, pointing out that extensive imports would cripple local woollen manufacturers. One grow-er, who lias made a study of the manufacture of these fibres at firsthand, said that they were not warm, that they were inelastic, and that when wet they were cold and clammy to the skin as against the warmth *f pure wool. There were many other disadvantages. Production, however, bad increased by leaps and bounds since 1930, and today exceeded in weight the combined wool clips of Australia and Xew Zealand. Germany, Italy and Japan had been forced to develop these fabrics because they had not the money to manufacture from pure wool. The view was expressed that the Government should take action and prohibit the importation of synthetic fabrics because of the threat they represented to Xew Zealand interests.