FINE WOOL NEEDS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24150, 8 January 1944, Page 3

FINE WOOL NEEDS

DECLINE IN RAW MATERIAL

REDUCTION OF FLOCKS

The slight difference in the appraisement value of fine and coarse wools is not without concern , to, those who interest themselves in the pastoral welfare of the country. The demand for coarse wool for Army purposes is encouraging the development of coarsewool breeds on some classes of country which have shown themselves well adapted for finer-woolled sheep. This tendency is further stimulated by the need for, and the greater profit of fat lamb production. This latter aspect, as an urgent war necessity, requires no explanation or justification, as part of the country’s war effort, but in the development the necessity of maintaining our fine-woolled flocks for the post-war civilian demand should be fully realised. There is little evidence that such is the case—rather the reverse if the small premium for fine wool in the appraisals over the coarse grades can be taken as an indication. It is a strange circumstance that though the efforts of the Government are concentrated on keeping commodity prices down to as near the pre-war level as possible fine wool should be exempted, for it is not realising under the appraisals its relative pre-war premium over coarser grades. The extent of the penalty thus imposed on the fine wool producer is intensified when the climatic disabilities of the high country and the increasing costs of mustering and high country management are taken into consideration. The result of these difficulties is that fine wool flocks are rapidly declining in strength, and if the movement is to be prevented from ■' gathering further momentum there is urgent need for .the Government to at once take the most effective step to stop it. That is to adjust the appraisal values more in accord with pre-war levels. A further deterioration of the position of fine wool flocks may force a position compelling the New Zealand mills to import suitable raw material for their requirements. The economic aspect of New Zealand wool manufacture arises in such a circumstance, so the position involves an industrial as well as a primary problem. The Decline In Flocks This deterioration of fine wool flocks is not completely told in the following table, as the figures relate only up to April 30, 1941. The -trend of another 2J years to bring the position up to date has to be estimated. In the absence of complete sheep statistics this movement can only be guessed at. but the guess of most observers in a position to estimate is that the figures have further declined. A sign of this is that the total flocks of the province declined between 1938 and 1941 by more than 1,000.000 head—from 6,147,589 to 5.100,459. The Dominion figures for the four years (inclusive) from 1938 to 1941 of the three breeds that come within the fine wool classification—those of a 50 wool count or more—or suitable for local wool needs—are as follows:

1938. 1941. Merino .. 1,052,253 891,734 Corriedale .. 1,474,064 1,237,706 Half bred ..' 2,380,092 2,082,466

4,906,409 4,211,906 These figures are confined practically to South Island' flocks, mainly Canterbury and Marlborough, and the high country of Otago. This makes the problem singularly a South Island one. The result of the heavy snow losses in the last year or two can only be loosely estimated by the offerings at the markets. The offerings of ewes have declined seriously in the last year or two in Canterbury—to a point which, with other evidences, raise misgivings as to the future of the island’s high country wool production. Woollen Milling Needs It is a fair estimate that the bulk of the 4,200,000 sheep covered in the preceding table carry wool of no' more than a 50 count, particularly of th« halfbreds. The extent to which this type is used in local milling operations has not been statistically recorded, but it is a fair assumption that the bulk of the 15,285,0481b of greasy wool used last year by the local mills was of a 56 count and over. This weight represents the wool of something like 2.000.000 sheep. With the present expansion of the milling industry on the one hand, and on the other the decreasing flocks of sheep with the necessary class of wopl to maintain the mill operations, the figures indicate that the position may not be far distant when needs will out-distance production. The figures in the table, it should not be overlooked, bring us only to April, 1941. The woollen industry is a rapidly growing one. There are 13 mills in operation in ‘he Dominion. The total value of plant, buildings, machinery, etc., is set down in the statistics at £984,079, and 4045 hands are employed. Salaries and wages paid in 1943 were £981,905, and the cost of materials used £1,078,049. The value of the products was £2.892.906 (as against £2,243,460 two years before) and the “added” value £1,814,857. The quantity of greasy wool used was 15,285,0481b, at a cost of £885,645. Recent statistics of the Australian woollen industry show that the Commonwealth mills have consumed wool to the value of £9,000,000 to £10,000,000 annually. On a population basis this is more than double the quantity the Dominion mills consume and on a sheep basis two and a half times as much. In Australia, however, there are, endless reserves of suitable wools: in New Zealand the trend towards an insufficiency is being allowed to run along quite unnoticed.

According to the Abstract of Statistics the number of rabbitskins exported for the 10 months of the year ending October was 12,285,183, of a value of £855,973. The figures for the corresponding 10 months of 1942 were 9,298,984 and £596,740. This increase in the “industry” of £259,000 in value and just on 3,000,000 in number may be taken as an indication that the pest is now being more widely attacked, and that the increase in it which was apparent last season as the result of two or three years of more or less desultory killing, has more than been arrested. The season is now over for heavy killing and unless the shipping position has delayed export the figures should represent practically the whole of this season’s exportable kill. Last season shipping was more difficult and this may mean a lessening of the “spread” between the figures shown of the two periods.