Inquiry Into Price Of Yarn Demanded

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 3

Inquiry Into Price Of Yarn Demanded

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, August 6.

The narrow limits between the average price of English yarn sold in New Zealand and the local product was too much of a coincidence for him to accept, Mr N. V. Douglas (Opp., Auckland Central) said in Parliament today.

If the average English yarn price, as published in the official journal of the industry there, were taken, and freight, duty and other incidental costs of getting the yarn here added, that of New Zealand-manufactured yarn was more or less the same, within narrow limits, said Mr Douglas. The wholesale price of New Zealand hand-knitting wool was 33s 4d a pound, but the retail price was 48s, a big difference. So was that between English worsted yarns at 12s 6d in Britain, and the New Zealand article at 23s 6d. When raw wool was averaging 42.8 d a pound at auction in New Zealand in 1963, carpet yarns were going to the weavers at 125 d to 129 d in

1964. When the price at auction was 55d, that to the carpet-makers was raised by another 9d over 1963.

Last year when the price at auction went down to an average of 39.15 d a pound, carpet manufacturers were paying more for their wools than when the average at auction was 6d higher. Mr Douglas said he felt the Price Tribunal should look at wool prices in New Zealand—at all levels.

Mr Douglas said he had previously drawn attention to the operation of a tyre-ring and he was pleased to learn that as a result of Trade Practices and Prices Commission investigation, £400,000 had been saved to tyre-users. He hoped this would continue in other fields.