FUTURE OF WOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 109, 4 November 1926, Page 11

FUTURE OF WOOL

MANUFACTURERS' PLIGHT

UNPROFITABLE BUSINESS

EXTENSION OF SELLING SEASON URGED.

• (United Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, 3rd Nov. Colonel Vernon Willey, in an address at the Colonial Institute, deolared that during the past eighteen months all stages of wool manufacture between the grower and the retailer had been unprofitable, but the growers and retailers had had adequate rewards. The governing factors in wool textiles were the world's decreased buying power and tho attraction of money in other directions—for instance, motor-cars. Also the vagaries of fashion and the relative cheapness of cotton were factors. The best correctives would bo the collection of fuller statistics, a revised system of distribution, and a future I market for wool tops. Wool was the only leading commodity without a j futures market. 1 Colonel Willey also advocated an extension of the colonial selling season, because trades' resources were no longer equal to lifting a year's production within a few months. An extension of the selling period would help to straighten out the price curve and correct intermittent employment. Colonel the Hon. Vernon Willey is one of the world's leading authorities on wool. During tho war he was Controller of Wool Supplies and AssistantDirector of Equipment and Ordnance Sorvices. He was born at Bradford in 1884, eldest son of Lord Barnby. He is a partner in the firm of Francis Willey and Co., Bradford, wool merchants. After service in Egypt and on Gallipoli ho was recalled by the War Office to deal with the recovery and repair of all military uniforms, and subsequently ho organised the purchase and distribution of the British and Colonial wool clips on Government and civilian account.