WOOL PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 87, 10 October 1927, Page 11

WOOL PRODUCTION

AUSTRALIA'S GREATEST

INDUSTRY

OUTLOOK FOR PRESENT

SEASON

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 6th October.

"While Australia has no reason to feel highly elated over the position in the pastoral industry, especially in New South Wales and Queensland, there is, at the same time, no reason to feel lugubrious over this year's wool production. The clip available for' sale during the current year, despite the dry conditions in the two principal pastoral States, will be approximately 300,000 bales larger than the average quantity sold over the previous ten years. The gross value of the wool sold in Australia during the past season was £55,610,000. Time- alone will tell how this year's sales will progress, but the returns, it is believed, will be well over the £50,000,000 mark. Wool is still and is likely to be, Australia's greatest income producer. New South' Wales will grow less wool this year, but, judging by selling experience to date, it will get prices ranging from 7J to 10 per. cent, higher for the clip.' Growers' profits, however, will be considerably diminished by stock losses, and by increased expenses as a result of handfeeding and other effects of the prolonged dry spell. New South Wales has not a little to thank the Continent for. It not only takes about 60 per cent, of the wool sold in the State, but it also accounts for the burry, faulty wools which form a large portion of the. New South Wales clip. Australia has not been neglectful, of its own possibilities, as far as the golden fleece is concerned. During the year ended'3oth June, for example, Australian mill-owners bought close on 200,000 bales of wool at.the auctions, or twice; the quantity they purchased in pre-war days. No industry has suffered more vicissitudes than the local woollen mills, which, however, with adequate . tariff protection, have now gained their feet.. The prejudice which has been entertained against locally-irfade material is gradually disappearing. In 1910, New South Wales carried 51,580,000 sheep,' but in 1920 the number had dwindled to 33,150,000. It has since soared to 54,630,000. Until more is done, however, to make the country drought-proof, in the way of water and feed conservation, and to conquer the rabbit,: these .fluctuations in the country's flocks will continue.'

. That the quality of our woollen goods is improving, and that, in the betterclass fabrics, they compare well with the imported articles, is revealed by the displays in the big Sydney shops. Expert opinion is that, in the case of the lower-grade woollens, it i^ if anything, superior. More than fifty mills are now busily at work, which is a healthy sign, especially as their output will extend with . the big advance in population. All the woollen goods we require will, of course, never be made locally. What are termed specialty lines will always come from overseas, •just as even the largest textile making countries abroad find it advisable to buy certain goods from quarters which have specialised in their production, but the future of the Australian industry'is generally bright, and the mills are likely to be increasing factors in the absorption of the clip. . .