Wanted: A Wool Board

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 279, 22 August 1944, Page 4

Wanted: A Wool Board

Sir, —Why not a Wool Board to have equal status with our meat and dairy boards? The appraised value of our annual wool clip is £10,000,000 —a very high percentage of our total exports. Yet the woolgrower is allowed no voice in present negotiations and no voice in postwar wool disposal. . ~ There is a small Wool Council to disburse the levy the farmers make on themselves of 6d. per bale, totalling £20,000, for publicity and research But the chairman of this Wool Council, Mr. Christie, is not a wool producer, but a Government appointee, and transacts business by word of mouth with Mr. Nash. Aud that televisiouary Minister and deep-sea voyager does as he thinks fit without consulting us. Should the present contract not be ex tended we are shortly to be faced with a stock-pile of 12,000,000 bales to compete with the sale of our annual clips. And who are our salesmen to be? No city-bred and elected Minister should be foolish enough to make decisions without consultation with properly constituted woolgrowcrs’ opinion. It is time our best men were mobilized for this purpose. For the handling of our wool problems Mr. Christie in my opinion lacks the necessary experience, and Mr. Nash is not conversant, and three questions thus arise: (1) Will Mr. Fraser or Mr. Nash attend the annual meeting of the Electoral College on August 30, and explain the. wool position to these elected representatives of the farming community? (2) If the Electoral College refuses to sanction the trip Mr. Christie proposes to take to London in November, will the Government deem his trip of sufficient importance to nay his expenses with tax payers’ money? (3) Will the Government give effect to Electoral College recommendations "asking for amending legislation giving the Wool Council the same status as meat and dairy boards? — I am, etc., L. T. DANIELL, member of N.Z. Wool Council. Masterton, August 20,