CANADIAN WOOL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 12

CANADIAN WOOL

GROWING AND WEAVING NEED FOR EXPANSION "Evening Post," 20th October. Information received by Mr. Croft, Canadian Government Trade Commissioner hi New Zealand, throws considerable light upon the Canadian wool-raising industry, a subject of which but little is heard in New Zealand, although Canada is' a good and increasing customer for New Zealand wools suitable to its requirements, running to approximately a quarter of a million sterling last year. Capital and efforts are now being concentrated in the Western provinces of the Dominion in the growing of wool and manufacture of woollen goods. It is officially reported that manufacturing is steadily spreading throughout the Prairie Provinces, based generally upon tho territory's great primary resources.- The sheep industry has been making great strides in Alberta, while that province has become a very large consumer of woollen products, so that it is not unnatural it should turn to woollen manufacturing to find outlet for its unsatisfied industrial ambitions. The Provincial Government is sponsoring the effort. IN ALBERTA. Developments have proceeded so far that definite decision has been reached to establish a plant at Edmonton by the Western Canada Woollen Mills,, Limited, which-will have an annual capacity. _o£ 1j500,000 pounds of wool in the grease, with S cloth equivalent of from 400,000 to 1,000,000 yards, depending upon the weight of the material. The mill production is scheduled to include a wide range of fabrics such as blankets, tweeds, velours, flannels, mackinaw cloth, friezes, and yarns which will be manufqetured from virgin wool. The mill, in its first year, will confine manufacture to blankets, for which there is a large market. At the same time the establishment of a co-operative woollen manufacturing industry at Lethbridge, using 1,500,000 pounds of wool annually, and representing a value of aproximately 300,000 dollars, is being considered by interested parties and seems a distinct likelihood. The Provincial Government is likewise interested in furthering this. Developments have proceeded surhtfient]j- far and the. general attitude towards such projects is such as to ensure the launching of woollen manufacturing industries in Alberta with all that this means to' the province and the West in general. W. A. Faulkner, prime mover in the Edmonton enterprise, has stated that the spread between what the Alberta farmer receives'for his wool and the export price in bond is more* than sufficient to establish the industry' in Alberta from one year's'savings from the wool clip. FUTURE FOR THE INDUSTRY. Interest in the development of the woollen industry in British Columbia cannot be disregarded, for greater proportional progress has been made there in the sheep industry than in any other province. Plans are on foot for further development, one of which-is-said-to bo a major migration movement of .British settlers _to unga'ge in sheep ranching occupations in British Columbia. It is also proposed to establish at Vancouver a wool-grading centre similar to that functioning at Ireuton. Ontario, where at present most ot the wool business of Canada is conducted. Vancouver, it is held, is a logical assembling and export placfe" for -wool. One Western Canadian authority believes that such establishment at • Vancouver, would probably have the'result-of. increasing returns to the producer torn. 25. to 50 per cent. "Western Canada.'.'.he.stjites, could find export markets to-day, .for. a wool clip ranging from 50,000 to 250,000 bales. Japan alone could use our entire British Columbia wool clip of last' seas"on in about one week." Indirectly' this "draws attention to the fact that Japan has, recently become very interested in supplies of wool trom Alberta aud a substantial- trade is expected to develop. • , ,-, Some 60 per cent., of. the annual Canadian wool clip is .cqnsmmecl by; Canadian mills. The. balance, is. exported, chiefly to the United States, which market in reality governs t>e price of Canadian wools. At the same time about 15,000,000 pounds of raw wool".ate imported into Canada each1 yeaf,'giving'an annual wool consumption by Canadian mills of around 25 000,000 pounds .(grease basis).- it is estimated that the total annual consumption of raw wool in Canada amounts to about 75,000,000 pounds, so that the dominion is producing only about one-fifth of its raw wool requirements, and manufacturing only about one-third ot its requirements of wool goods.- Granted that the Canadian mills were supplying 0a per cent, of-the home market for wool goods, as they might easily do without difficulty, it would mean the provision of a market in Canada for upwards of 50,000 000 pounds of raw wool, 80 per cent, of which should be domestic, or over four times the present consumption. ■ That is the domestic sheep and wool industry might be developed almost immediately to over four times its present size, B'™^.™™, a sheei> population of around 10,000,000 head, instead of about 3,500,000 as at present, and an annual wool. production of around 60 000,000 pounds (grease basis), instead o£ about 15,000,000 pounds as at present.