IMPROVING QUALITY OF WOOL

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 94, 15 January 1929, Page 8

IMPROVING QUALITY OF WOOL

INVESTIGATIONS BY ENGLISH EXPERT VISIT OF DR. NICHOLS Dominion Special Service. Auckland, January 14. A definite step has been taken to co-ordinate the interests of producers and manufacturers engaged in the woollen industry in the British Empire. Dr. J. E. Nichols, a member of the research committee set up after the war by the woollen and worsted industries of Great Britain, arrived from Sydney by the Aoraugi last evening, and will spend three months in the Dominion making a close investigation of the conditions of production. His tour is under the joint auspices of the research committee and the Empire Marketing Board. Dr. Nichols has already spent three and a half months in Australia, .and after his visit to New Zealand will return to the Commonwealth, where he will remain another three months. Then he will proceed to South Africa and Canada to study wool producing conditions in those countries. He will leave for Wellington this evening to confer with members of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. “After the war the manufacturers realised that many of the problems connected with the industry started at the producing centres,” said Dr. Nichols. “The upshot was the setting up of the committee. It was then decided that someone should tour the wool-producing countries of the Empire, and inquire into the producing end of the business, to investigate how 'wool is produced and the difficulties of production, so that manufacturers may better understand the -problems of tire producers, and the producers more readily appreciate the difficulties of the manufacturers.

“The industry in Great. Britain is passing through a most interesting stage,” Dr. Nichols added. “New processes are coming into use and new markets, especially in the East, are being found. I am optimistic about the future of the industry. The general state of the industry shows very satisfactory signs.” . During his tour. Dr. Nichols will not only note methods and conditions of production, but will explore any possible changes in conditions for the information of manufacturers on his return to London. He will furnish an extensive report to the Empire Marketing Board, and he hopes the report will be to the mutual benefit of manufacturers and producers.

An early meeting has been arranged with the Wool Research Committee of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which has already devoted considerable attention to a programme of investigations designed to improve the quality of New Zealand wools.'