SALE OF WOOL ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 10

SALE OF WOOL ACT

EFFECTIVE ON JULY 1

ABOLITION OF DRAFT ALLOWANCE '

The practice In relation to contracts of sale of wool of making the deductions known as draft allowances will r be abolished by the Sale of Wool Act, 1937, which comes into force on July 1. The Act, which was passed last session, gives effect td the arrangement between, New Zealand and Australia to abolish the draft allowance on wool,' regarding which similar action is being taken in South Africa. The draft allowance on wool, though long contested by growers, has been customary in the wool trade for a long period. Many years ago the buyers arbitrarily determined to claim lib in every hundredweight of wool to protect themselves against short weight, due to the imperfect scales used in those days. Weighing machines of recent years, however, are so accurate that bales of wool can now be weighed almost to the exact ounce. Growers have protested for many years against the draft allowance, but the buyers have continued to deduct approximately 3Jlb from the weight of every bale of wool. What this means to the grower can be gauged from the fact that at a Wellington sale at which, say, 28,000 bales of wool are sold, the draft allowance to buyers is approximately 08,0001b (875cwt), which at an average of, say, 10d a lb, represents £204. ' During the 1938-37 season 686,994 ' bales of wool were sold, the average price being 15.71 d a lb. The draft allowance on this large quantity would be approximately 2,404,4791b, of a value of well over £150,000, which represents virtually a gift to the buyers. The abolition of the draft allowance is resented strongly by the British Wool Federation, which recently suggested to its members a boycott of the Australian and New Zealand sales of 1938-39. The circular issued made it clear that such a boycott would be contingent upon 80 per cent, of members agreeing and Japan • taking the same action. The boycott threat, however, is not being regarded seriously by growers in New Zealand and Australia.