Replacing Wool

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3161, 4 May 1931, Page 6

Replacing Wool

WOOLLEN (GARMENTS IN JAPAN. REASON FOR BIG ORDERS. (Special to the 'Star.') The, assurance that Japan will be just as heavy a purchaser at next year's wool sales as she was at the recent sales this season, particularly in the South Island, was given by Mr T. ishii, Japanese wool buyer, in an interview with a reporter. Mr Ishii said his country's buying 1 orders this season totalled' about 400.000 bales, and he was confident that next year they would be just as big. The reason behind these large orders, he explained, was that during the last year or two there had been an increasing demand lor woollen goods in Japan. This had been accentuated by the low prices of wool, which had developed into a serious competitor of silk; and the output of the textile mills had increased enormously. Silken garments which at one time were almost universally used in japan, were being replaced by woollen garments of fine texture. '"You know," said Mr Ishii, "the Japanese lias aj very keen sense of touch and lie docs not like anything rough, lie nuisl have something very fine before he is satisfied." That was why Japanese, requirements were largely confined to liner sot ts of wool, such as fiiu4 cress-bred and comel.aeks. "We could not get all we wan tod in Australia, so we came lo(. New Zealand," he added, "and purchased your finer wools iu the South Island. The wool grow 11 in the North Island is coarser and not of much use to Japan. We want good fine fleece wools and pieces."