SYNTHETICS AND WOOL

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27074, 24 June 1953, Page 13

SYNTHETICS AND WOOL

EFFECTS ON FARM ECONOMICS “GENERAL PUBLIC VITALLY CONCERNED” (Mew Zea tuna Press Association) “Tf .^^ EK ¥ NGTON ’ Jun e 23. lx synthetic nbres eventually diswhat , w lll be the effect ot unprofitable wool prices on meat production. Professor G. S. Peren asked a sheepfarmers' meeting at Massey Agricultural College yesterday. increasing synthetic fibre production showed no sign yet of SSJ? ng w °? l Production unprofitable. Professor Peren said the relation oi JL 0 ® 1 . Production to meat production largely overlooked. . a matter which concerns vitally the general public and. thereL° re, j “8 tne subject on to a much •‘t<° u er P lane >” Professor Peren said, it becomes everybody’s concern, and not tnerely the sheepfarmer’s.” Meat and wool were interlocked in economics of sheepfarming, he said. If the price of one was entirely eliminated, the price of the other must be increased sufficiently to allow the farmer s business to remain solvent, or he must turn to a different kind of farming. Professor Peren said he thought wool would be unlikely to lose its market completely, but its price could fall permanently to the point at which, on present land values and other costs, production would be unprofitable. Meat prices would then have to be advanced, or the country would be faced with a serious farming depression. if not a major financial calamity..

A major and permanent landslide in wool prices would necessitate either a big increase in meat prices or a major readjustment in farming economy. affecting a very large proportion of the country, if farmers were to remain in business and food production to be maintained. Professor Peren said. This picture was deliberately exaggerated, for he wanted to emphasise that a stage could be reached where wool prices could affect meat production.

Upheaval “Inevitable” Even if hill country men turned over tneir stocks of sheep and lambs to flat country farmers, and concentrated on cattle for beef production, this could not avert economic upheaval. Professor Peren said. Either beef prices would have to jump steeply or farmers would go bankrupt. “Would it really , profit the world if synthetic fibres were to replace wool? Would there be any real gain in welfare?” Professor Peren asked. If there were no synthetic fibres to act as stabilisers, natural fibres might reach sucty peaks of demand as to cause privation and hardship, as the result of increasing populations and the limits of animal and vegetable production.

Because this was probably true, noone could quarrel with synthetics so long as they did not ruin the meatwool combination. Unless people would pay higher prices for meat, this combination was inseparable. Professor Peren said he did not wish to be taken as an alarmist, but though natural wool fibres might remain in demand, capitalists could put up factories and increase synthetic fibre production much more rapidly than wool production could be increased.