Wool Profits.

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 4

Wool Profits.

A decision hanging in the balance, involving somowhero about

£8,000,000, is one of

Hojno interest to tho general public as well as tho woolgrowora of Now Zealand, It arises out of tho commandeer of wool and its subsequent disposal by tho Imperial Government. Baldly stated, tho position is that the Government acquired and paid for the wool at appraisal prices. This was dono under four separate contracts for tho successive' dips, those contracts providing that tho Government would share with tho growers tho prolife represented by tho not difference between tho appraisal value of the wool and tho prico obtained from tho trade on its disposal by auction. In case of that difference being on tho wrong side the Imperial Government would stand tho loss. So long as the marked; held, all went well for both parties. Thor© wore profits for division. But when prices broko there was another talo to toll. Until tho remainder of the surplus stocks held on behalf of tho Imperial Government has boon cleared, it is impossible to say definitely what losses there will ho to set against tho profits. Tho position appears to bo that tho Imperial Government ■wishes to set losses against profits over the whole series of four contracts, and divide with growers tho net profit, if any, so arrived at, Tho growers' contention is that each contract is to ho considered separately, and that there should bo no deduction of losses made under the later ones from tbo profits made under the earlier ones. Legal opinions on both sides of tho globe have been obtained. Naturally those obtained in Britain favor tho Imperial Government, while Now Zealand lawyers uphold tho claims of tho woolgrowevs, particularly if it is proved that tho Imperial Government merely acted in the commandeer as tho agents for tho growers. If one may bo permitted to be wise after tho event, it is now plain that tho Imperial Government made a mistake from a business point of view in starving the trade and exacting tremendous prices. The reaction has come, and the question now is who shall bear tho brunt of the penalty for miscalculating or mishandling tho matter. This was what Mr Massey was referring to when ho said that wool-growers' interests had not been properly looked after. There was no hint of complaint during tho height of tho boom, but people arc apt to forgot that Newton’s law—“ To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” —applies in other spheres than physics. It is poor comfort to bo told now by Mr Massey that ho has good authority for saying that tho whole, or nearly tho whole, of the Australian and New Zealand accumulations could have been parted with at a satisfactory prico.