CONFERENCE ON WOOL

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21533, 24 July 1935, Page 17

CONFERENCE ON WOOL

ABSORBING THE CARRYOVER MR FORBES AT BRADFORD (thou otrs, ovw cokrf.si'ondeht.) LONDON, June 29. On Ills visit to Bradford, Mr Forbes conferred with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and of the British Wool Federation. Mr W. Hunter spoke of the importance of absorbing the carry-over of 150,000 bales of New Zealand wool. Some important making up firms, he said, were using large quantities of rrtificial silk linings instead of worsted linings at present, but he believed that if improvements in certain directions were carried out by the wool textile industry—particularly in the direction of securing a . etter wool pack—many of the drawback?; of worsted linings would disappear and the trade might once again secure the linings market! Mcny defects in wool textile materials could be traced to unsatisfactory wool packs. It was, therefore, in the interests of New Zealand, Australia, and other Dominions—besides Great Britain herself—that a more perfect pack should be evolved. Mr Forbes said that New Zealand wool growers fully recognised that it wa3 no use producing wool which was not of the very best quality, but the farmers had their difficulties—particularly in the North Island—and had to have regard to the problem of raising the best fat lrmbs. They wished to be able to produce wool which would!

command better prices, and in the North Island crossing experiments were beiag tried with a view of obtaining an improved quality of wool. This would never take the place of the Romney sheep in the districts where there was a heavy rainfall, however, but there would be a larger qurntity of finer quality wool available in the future than in the past. A New Pack New Zealand had her own flax, and experiments had been made to see whether it could be used to provide a more satisfactory wool pack and, incidentally, furnish more employment. A pack had been evolved, but the compeny responsible for its production wished for Bradford's assistance in order to eliminate any faults which might still exist. He urged the desirableness of introducing some form of propaganda for keeping constantly before the public the attributes of wool as compared with other textiles.

A good deal of private wool buying of a speculative character is still going on in Otago and Southland, and some fairly large transactions have been reported during the last week or two, states a southern report. A good many growers who either withheld their wool from last season's auctions or intended to ship their clips Home have been persuaded to dispose of their wool at prices just below London parity. Although the bulk of the buying is being done by local operators, both German and Japanese interests have also been fairly active.