AUSTRALIAN SHEARING

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30410, 8 April 1964, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN SHEARING

Sheep Increase Beats Labour (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, April 6. The number of shearers available in Australia is not keeping pace with the rising sheep population, according to a survey of the large Australian shearing organisation. Grazcos Co-operative, Ltd. If positive action is not taken quickly there may soon be not enough shearers to harvest the Australian wool clip, the survey says. The Australian sheep population, now about 158 m, has increased by almost 10m since 1957, a steady increase at‘the rate of 1,6 m a year. Shearing tne wool from each additional million sheep involves about 10,000 mandays, the Grazcos reports pointed out. This means that 75 extra shearers are needed for every additional million sheep. To keep pace with sheep numbers, the work force must I there expand by at least 120 : shearers each year. “And indications are that nothing approaching the required increase is taking place,” the purvey says.

Heinrich Schoenfeld, said to be the world's first tank driver, has died at his home near Schiebbs, in Austria, aged 79. He first test-drove the Austro-Daimler tank as a young dragoon officer in 1906, and later tested tanks designed by Porsche. He also won motor racing prizes before and after World War I.