TAR BRANDS ON WOOL

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22491, 27 August 1938, Page 16

TAR BRANDS ON WOOL

Complaints From Manufacturers

"SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY

PROHIBITED"

(PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

WELLINGTON, August 26. Complaints were frequently made by wool manufacturers in England and elsewhere about the use on sheep of branding fluids having a bitumen base, said Mr H. M. Christie, M.P., chairman of the New Zealand Wool Publicity Committee, in an address to-day to members of the Electoral College of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board. Mr Christie, who has just returned from a conference of representatives of wool-produc-ing countries held in London, said that it had been found that large numbers of the growers still used tar paint for branding. In South Africa it was compulsory for the producer to remove such brands by clipping them from the fleeces before the wool was offered for sale and heavy fines were imposed for failure to do so. Mr Christie said that he had been shown samples of garments which contained spots from paint or tar being on the wool. These spots had to be specially treated in a separate process. "I believe that it is quite time," Mr Christie added, "that we asked the Government to arrange through the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research for more information about some of these branding fluids which are on the market. Farmers should be advised against some of them. At the same time some of the manufacturers of proprietary brands of fluid have expended large sums on research. We don't want -to discourage that; but we should be ruthless with those who are misrepresenting their branding fluids. Furthermore, branding with tar and paint should be absolutely prohibited." The electoral college was unanimously in favour of some action-being taken along the lines suggested by Mr; Christie.