NEW ZEALAND WOOL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 226, 21 June 1934, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND WOOL

Some Suggestions For Its Improvement ENGLISH EXPERT QUOTED (By Dr. A. J. Harrup.) Before leaving England I took the opportunity of consulting an expert in the wool trade on the position of New Zealand wool, and lie gave me some figures and opinions which may be of interest to producers here. The probable limitation of exports of meat (to which he refers) makes his statement very timely. Here is his statement of the values of meat and wool exported from New Zealand in recent years:— Meat.

The average value of the New Zealand wool clip for the 12 years 1922-33 is approximately £8,000,000. “A glane'e at tbes- figures,” my informant stated, “shows that the value of the meat exported has declined by only 15 per cent,, whereas in wool the decline has been much more marked. Any further increase in Australian . values and/or any further improvement in world trade will result in an increased demand for the coarser New Zealand qualities with a further increase in price.

“New Zealand crossbreds since the war have lost a considerable amount of their original character. The war gave encouragement to the meat export trade which has been developed . assiduously ever since rather to the detriment of the wool breeding side of the pastoral industry. “The original New Zealand flocks were for the most part founded on the cross of the Australian merino and the English Leicester and Lincoln breeds, producing a soft handling wool with good spinning qualities—also a fair quantity of good “lustre” wools of low quality. “To-day the English Romney has superseded the Lincoln and the Leicester, and the Down has to some extent taken the place of the merino for crossing purposes. The resultant crossbred wool has not the spinning properties of the original merino/Leicester or Linc'oln cross. “The chief fault to be found with wool bred from the Roinney stock is the amount of hairy straight-fibred fleeces produced with definite inferior spinning characteristics. If considerable care can be exercised in the selection of stoc*k for breeding and if careful culling can be undertaken, the above-mentioned faults can be nearly, but not absolutely, eradicated. “Unfortunately, during the last few years an increasing quantity of badly bred hairy wools from the Dominion have been offered to the buyers, and the reputation of its wool clip hns not been enhanced thereby. The standard of classing and general get-up of the clip has also deteriorated. The depression and the low prices ruling since 1929-30 have had a considerable bearing on the above two points and no doubt many growers have found very little justification for the extra expense nqcessar.v in keeping their fioc’ks nnd clips up to standard. It is hoped that, with an era of better prices, a considerable improvement, will be seen and that pastoralists as a whole will endeavour to devote a little more attention to the wool side. “While the possibility of any restriction being placed on the importation of wool into the United Kingdom is so remote ns to be almost .negligible, the prospects of restriction on meat supplies is practically an ncfeomplislied fact. “Wool is being used more and more as a medium of clothing, and the demand

all the time is for soft-handling fabrics. Therefore the grower who produces wool with this important characteristic (such as was once the case with the bulk of the New Zealand clip) will reap the best results. Growers who have kept their clips up to full standard during the last 10 years are to be congratulated and the increased and specialised demand t<> day must bring them their own reward.

1928 . £10.059,000 1929 . £10,025.000 1930 . £10,934,000 1931 £9,035,000 1932 . £9.258,000 1933 £9.050,000 Wool. 1927-2S £13,00-1.200 1928-29 £12,217,382 1929-30 £5,130,897 1930-31 £3.558,587 1931-32 £3,571,700 1932-33 £4,327,092