P.M. 'Satisfied’ On Wool Prospects

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 12

P.M. 'Satisfied’ On Wool Prospects

'lpectai Correspondent N.Z.MJ LONDON, September 10. Wool must continue to be New Zealand's most important export earner, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said in London yesterday.

Present price levels reflected the hard realities of the competitive pressures on wool and other supply-and-demand factors in international markets—“something we have got to battle to improve,” he said. Mr Holyoake said he had been Interested to learn firsthand of progress and prospects for wool, especially as far as New Zealand was concerned, in talks with Mr W J. Vines, managing director of the International Wool Secretariat, during his visit to its headquarters yesterday. He was satisfied that New Zealand would continue to sell all the wool it could produce at prices which would

bring growers reasonable operating margins. Mr Holyoake said New Zealand wool had earned more than £l2O million last year and was “a vital element in our continuing prosperity and economic growth. “Higher prices would be a help, but too sharp a rise precipitates the inevitable fall in demand and setback in prices which we have experienced again after the 1964 boom. “The answer must continue to be greater production and efficiency, backed by unflagging effort and ingenuity in our marketing. In this, the I.W.S. is doing an impressive job for wool,” Mr Holyoake said.