WOOL CONSUMPTION

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23379, 12 July 1941, Page 6

WOOL CONSUMPTION

THE DOMINIONS’ INCREASED USE Though wool for civilian use is severely rationed in Great Britain, a fairly large consumption is still proceeding. Actually the needs of the (general public are much reduced by the fact that millions of men and women are now in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and semi-military organisations which the Government supplies with uniforms and other apparel. The use of wool in those instances, says the weekly letter of Winchcombe, Carson, Ltd.,- has simply been transferred from private to Government account. Export trade in 1940 was very little below 1939, though for the first half of the year Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland were not available for shipments and during subsequent months practically the whole of the Continent was eliminated.

The idea should, therefore, not be held that because of rationing of the raw material for home civilian use and the concentration of activity into a fewer number of mills, consumption of the sheep’s staple in the British Isles is small. The fact must also be remembered that the Australian mills are supplying export customers with goods for military and civilian purposes who previously obtained their requirements in Great Britain. Canada, for a long time Yorkshire’s largest overseas buyer of woollens and worsteds, has extended her mills and is more and more catering for her own needs.

In viewing the quantity of wool consumed in the United Kingdom, allowance should be made for the increased consumption in the Dominions. It is necessary to view the mill activity throughout the British Empire in which as a whole the quantity being utilised is probably far greater than before the war. Establishments in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and India are all employed to their' full capacity. Strange though it may seem, the impetus given to Australian mill production in the 1914-18 war period and the effects of bad times in depreciating the value of the Australian £ have been of special benefit to the consumption of wool locally since the war started The rate of exchange gave the mills additional protection, enabling them to increase their plants and, by working to full capacity, produce their present record quantity of fabrics. Their output in 1939-40 was 14,674.179 square yards of woollens and worsteds and 245,222 pairs of blankets, rugs. etc. It is estimated that about half a million bales of the season’s clip will be used by local millmen, combers, and spinners. That consumption is of decided advantage in checking a too extensive accumulation of wool in the Commonwealth.

Further development in Australian mill turnover may occur as time proceeds. It could be experienced now if machinery were available. A Government announcement states that practically the whole output of local woollen fabrics and blankets for the next three months will be required for defence purposes in Australia and overseas. and arrangements are being made to secure additional plant for the production of yarns. If. as the Government anticipates, the activity of a number of British mills is transferred to Australia, it will be a repetition of previous experiences. Several English concerns own or are interested in mills in the Commonwealth. They took that action to retain their trade. The necessity for doing so is shown by the fact that whereas in 1913 Great Britain’s exports of woollens and worsteds to Australia were 22.125 000 square yards and yarns 1,328,0001b, the totals for 1938 were woollens and worsteds 1,555.000 square yards and practically no yams. Useful as the local consumption of Australian wool is in present circumstances, it should, be more so in future years when wool has to meet the. world’s markets. Much extended pur-’ chasing by the mills would prove a very influential factor in competition.

RABBITSKIN WEALTH At the Dunedin rabbit.:Hn sale last week 81 tons of skins sold, for all but a small proportion of partly grown from 70d to 184 d per lb. The great bulk of them ranged from 120 d to 150 d, and it would appear that a conservative value of the whole catalogue would be about 130 d, or 11s per lb. On this basis the value -1 the whole catalogue would have realised more than £90,000. For the best winter bucks 3s to 3s 6d each was paid. On figures alone, it would almost seem that the much execrated rabbit has attained a position where its economic importance can be defended. Most of these high priced rabbits come from the high country of Otago, where the pest is irrepressible, and some of the runholders there may be tempted to return to the bad old days when a little bit of rabbit farming was not severely frowned upon. With one branch of their revenue removed by the embargo c.i wether killing restrictions, some of them might be tempted to slip back into the bad old ways. The gloomy outlook for hill country farming, with the possibility that some of the most difficult areas will follow the lead already set in the way of abandonment, the next generation might see a Government owned rabbit park of blocks of our hill country, for most of these areas are Crown lands. Figures quoted about 20 years ago showed that on one back country station in Canterbury more than 100,000 skins were taken in one year." At an average summer and winter price 6f Is a skin—a low basis on to-day’s prices—this would mean a gross revenue of £SOOO. This particular, property will not return anything like this to-day from sheep, with the shearing and other costs still to be taken off.

The one uncertainty is the future of the rabbitskin market. The continuance of the present scale of values is only a possibility, though some experts claim that the years of destruction of furred animals in North America will shortly call for some substitute, war or no war. and the rabbit apparently supplies one desirable source.

One of the six new linen flax mills provided for in the proposals of the Government to handle next season’s extended area was to be at Gore, in Eastern Southland, the condition for establishment .being that farmers within a radius of 15 to 20 miles of that centre should undertake to grow 1000 acres of flax. ' The response to date is very disappointing, only a small proportion of this area having been promised in spite of vigorous advocacy by agricultural officers and general publicity. Some of the best flax grown in the Dominion last season was in the Tapanui district, about 28 miles from Gore, and as much of the Gore land is of similar quality and has similar climatic conditions the district appeared a good one for helping to meet the Government request.

In the pre-war period the annual value of agricultural produce in England and Wales was £225,000,000, whereas imported foodstuffs came to £400,000,000. To-day England had to produce the bulk of the latter amount, which showed the urgent need of getting all out of the land they could,, said a British Government official m-