"USE MORE WOOL"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 7, 8 July 1931, Page 6

"USE MORE WOOL"

Opening the "use-more-wool" exhibition in the D.I.C. yesterday afternoon, the Minister of Agriculture (tho Hon. A. J. Murdoch) remarked that the woollen industry was one of the Dominion's most important industries, but in company with other industries it had suffered from the slump. One way to counteract this was to cultivate a taste for, and an inclination to buy, woollen goods.

Quoting statistics, the Minister said that in the 1913-14 season 203 million pounds weight of wood at tenpence a pound brought in 8.7 million pounds in.money. In the slump year of 1920 the figures were 197 million pouuds weight, which, at 8.1 pence a pound, brought in 6^7 millions in money. The peak year of 1924 saw 18.9 million pounds weight of wool at 19.1 pence bring in 15.8 millions in money. For the last season, however, 262-million pounds weight of wool fetched on an average only 5.6 pence per pound, bringing in 6.18 millions of money. This drop in revenue from wool was largely responsible for tho present depression, and it was a considerable drop. Much could 'ho done, and had

beon done, to help the wool-grower. Importing woollen goods was equivalent to sending wealth out of the country. There wore in New Zealand twelve woollen mills operating, employing over two thousand hands. The wages paid them (£304,000 last year), meant money circulating in the country. The mills last year had used four million pounds of wool by weight, but this year there was a drop. More could and should bo done to stimulate this trade, and the present campaign deserved every encouragement. He congratulated the ladies of the Farmers' Union for. their initiative in the campaign. It deserved the support of all, and by supporting it everybody would be helping themselves.

Mr. J. H. Joll (Havclock North) and Mrs. G. G. Jackson, president of the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union, also spoke relative to the campaign.