STAPLE FIBRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 282, 29 November 1938, Page 7

STAPLE FIBRE.

NO NEED FOR FEAR. WOOLLEN TRADE'S FUTURE. MANUFACTURER'S PREDICTION (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. "New Zealand woolgrowerg need not fear competition from synthetic staple fibre," said Mr. S. Castle-Smith, of London, a director of Samuel Courtauld and Company, the world'e biggest manufacturers of rayon. "Although the people of totalitarian Statee that are trying to limit manufactures to their own natural resources may be forced to go clad in cloth made from wood-pulp or extract of milk, wool will always be necessary to the remainder of mankind." Mr. Castle-Smith arrived to-day from Svdney. He said there was no likelii hood of rayon being made on this side of the world in the immediate future. Artificial Cloth. "The manufacture of artificial fibre only interfere* with the woollen trade in thoee countries where the use of wool ie restricted, as in Germany, Italy and Japan," he said. "Nobody in his senses would ever want to wear a suit made from fabric woven from staple fibre. It would lack the durability and elasticity of natural wool and would bag at the elbows and knees and etretch out of shape. For underwear and suitings it cannot possibly rival wool."

Mr. Caetle-Smith said that in Germany artificial fibre cloth, called zellwolle, was being widely thruet upon the people as a substitute for woollen cloth. Similarly, synthetic rubber was being ueed for tyres, but it was noticeable that such notabilities as Herr Hitler, Fiejd-Marshal Goering and Dr. Goebbels did not make use of them. They paid heavily for real rubber and real woollen garment*. In Italy artificial fibre wae made from casein, the basic matter of

cheese extracted from ordinary milk. In those countries also, various substitutes were ueed for steel, with disastrous reeulte to the machinery constructed of them. Demand For Wool. The real use of rayon staple fibre manufactured from wood-pulp was more likely to increase the demand for wool than prejudice it 3 market, continued Mr. Castle-Smith. Its consumption would be augmented by combining it with artificial fibre for the manufacture of entirely new fabrics. That was what had happened where cotton was concerned. When artificial fibre was introduced the Lancashire cotton manufacturers wised an outcry on the grounds that it would put them out of business, but the cotton trade was still thriving and indeed had been stimulated by the many ways in which it had been found possible to combine it with the new fibre.

Not so Essential. Mr. Castle-Smith said the same thing was shown in the silk trade, although rayon came more directly into competition with silk, and silk was not so essential to mankind as wool or cotton. Rayon yarn was made in the form of a continuous filament and was then cut into short staples or lengths to suit the staple length of the cotton or woollen 1 fibre with which it was to be blended. It was therefore ideal for this purpose, but as a substitute for wool it was unsuitable, being inelastic and requiring to be blended with a tremendously heavy percentage of wool before it began to gain any of the qualities of woollen cloth.