WOOL COMMANDEER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 8

WOOL COMMANDEER

QUESTION IN HOUSE

PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS

In an urgent question addressed to the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives this -afternoon, Mr. T. D. Burnett (National, Temuka) asked whether, in view of the fact that a very considerable quantity of the wool in the South Island was taken over by the Government at a price below cost, the Government would tell the growers affected if maximum wool production at the present time was in Imperial and Dominion interests or not.

Mr. Burnett said that if maximum wool production was not required, then it would be better in Dominion interests if large areas of purely pastoral country were systematically spelled, in which event rents, rates, and taxes should be adjusted.

In his reply, the Prime Minister quoted figures to show that the price being paid was not below the cost of production in this country. He said that the United Kingdom Government required all the wool New Zealand could produce, and had already contracted to purchase the entire clip for the duration of the war and one year thereafter.