WOOL-SORTING AND CLASSING.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12497, 7 May 1906, Page 6

WOOL-SORTING AND CLASSING.

Tho director of the Technical Clashes mado out a good case on Friday for the establishment on a proper footing of the wcol-sorting classes at tho Technical School. He showed that in the Technical College-*-* of Sydney and Mcl- , bourne the importance of affording means for obtaining technical knowledg in the handiing of wool is fully appreciated, and the wool-sorting classes in those institutions are apparently well supported. New Zealand's- wool export ia greater than that of either New South Wales or Victoria, and as Mr Howell said, if it pays these States to equip and maintain classes in which the scientific handling of wool is taught, it ought to pay this colony to do the pame. Tho case in which the wool of one Australian station brought, oneeighth of a penny to a farthing per pound more when sorted by young men who had been through the Sydney olasses than similar wool handled by ordinary sorters, might easily be paralleled in this colony if proper facilities were afforded for learning all tho art and mystery of wool-classing and sorting. That such facilities have net been available so far is evident when Mr Howell's statement, that the course should last eight or nine months, with twenty-five, hours' work in each week, as in Australia, is compared with the present arrangement of two hours' work per week, under conditions that do not seem calculated to mako for success, even if the scarity time aiiowance peraiitt*<d it. There is* evidently a demand locally for instruction in wool-sorting, but probably a good many who would attend if the | class were set up on a proper hasir. ! would find it difficult to give eight or '. nine months of almost daily work to the t:isk. It. would be better, one would think, to shorten the : course, if possible. That, however, is a matter for future decision. The fimt thing is to erect and equip tho necessary building. Assistance in thia ta.sk may be invited with confidence from the organisations connected with tho pastoral industry and from pasrtoralists themsolvos, sineo primarily the wool-1 growers will reap tho benefit derived from any improvement in the method of' preparing our wool for the markets.