SPREAD OF PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1944, Page 6

SPREAD OF PRODUCTION

MAKING OF UTILITY CLOTHS

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, July 12. The rigid control of Britain's wool consumption for home purposes is exemplified in the announcement that a major portion of the July-October rations to the British mills must be used entirely for utility cloths for people of modest means. If the manufacturers were allowed to make any cloths they desired they might produce more expensive types, for commercial or other reasons. The authorities therefore ensure spread of the production of woollen goods over all types of clothing by specifying the quantities and qualities which the manufacturers may produce. This directional control ensures that all sections of the public are catered for, and also ensures spread of wool consumption over all types. New Zealand crossbred wool is well placed owing to its wide field of usefulness. It is not only extensively used for many forms of war production but is also, in demand' for civilian wear owing to its robust equalities and its durability. War conditions have served to popularise the New Zealand crossbred wools still further, for the limited public purchasing power owing to clothes rationing has caused the public to turn from soft-handling fabrics to the more durable and hardwearing cloths in production, of which New Zealand wool plays a valuable part.*

LONG-TERM WOOL OUTLOOK,

The wool trade here, is unperturbed by reports of withdrawals at auctions of United States stock-pile wools, and sees no reason to regard this as a pessimistic augury in the long-term wool outlook. The United States domestic war economy is not built on a basis of restricted supplies to the same extent as some other United Nations, and the United States current wool experience is no criterion for the world as a whole.

Trade opinion here is that the end of the war will release an unprecedented demand for wool from most countries, sufficient to make substantial inroads into any wartime accumulations. It is believed that both the post-war demand and consumption will be regulated according to a system of priorities and urgency of need, and that effective steps will be taken to prevent any exploitation. Apropos the opening of the new wool year with July, traders here £re discussing the duration of the present British Government wool-purchasing agreements with the Dominions. The trade understands that the agreements are for the war period and one subsequent wool year. If the latter is the July-to-June twelve months, the fact that the war has passed into a new wool year conceivably means that the present arrangements would cover the 1944-45 and 1945-46 clips. Whatever official interpretation may be placed on the duration of the agreements, trade opinion here is that much may happen in the period during which Britain has already contracted to buy Empire clips to clarify further the outlook for world wool.