AUSTRALIAN TEXTILES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 24, 28 July 1927, Page 14

AUSTRALIAN TEXTILES

GROWTH. OF THE INDUSTRY

"Evening Post," 2Sth. July.

■ Nearly £7;500,000 invested in. the Australian ■ textile industries is taken by the "Textile: Journal of Australia" as-a test for a sermon, on the benefits of a high tariff on textiles. The journal shows that the total sum.invested in these industries at the end-of the fiscal year, 1925-26, was £7,416,293,- but it • estimates that fully another half-million in assets must be' added to this total since these figures were published. It remarks that these figures refer only to the fixed assets belonging to those mills or companies which have been incorporated, no account being taken of the many small concerns engaged in the manufacture of hosiery and other small goods, and owned, and operated by individuals. Of these there are many, and their fixed assets have been valued by those interested at £1,000,000 sterling. The values of the same assets held by allied textile industries, such as dyers,' bleachers, wool scourers, etc., are omittted from this consideration. This is the case also in the instances of the manufacturers of garments from textile fabrics, although they fairly may be classed as part of the great textile industry. - The total quoted is made up as follows: £ .Woollen and Tweed MillsLand* and- Buildings .1,659,446 Plant and Machinery 3,247,602 Hosiery and Knitting Mills— Land and Buildings 1,071,792 Plant and Machinery 1,042,372 Cotton MillsLand and Buildings 171,528 Plant and Machinery 223,557 ' ' . ■ ' £7,416,205 The yearly out-turn from these establishments—still omitting the smaller concerns referred to above—is shown by the Government Statist as. £10,872,060. This is equivalent'to, roughly, £1 13s 4d per unit —man, woman, and child—-of our most lately calculated population. Imports of textiles for the eleven months of 1926-27 ended May were valued for Customs and statistical purposes at £39,739,657.