The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 30, 1934. NEW ZEALAND WOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 21785, 30 July 1934, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 30, 1934. NEW ZEALAND WOOL.

Considering the income New Zealand derives from raw wool, an expenditure of £IO,OOO a year on wool research cannot be considered extravagant. Es pccially is this the case when *the industry itself is to furnish the funds by a levy of 4d per bale. The expenditure of the money will he entrusted to a Wool Research Council, which will co-operate within New Zealand with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Scientific find Industrial Research, and outside New. Zealand with the Wool Industries Research Association, ah Imperial organisation. Working with this latter, there are organisations in Australia and South Africa, and New Zealand’s inaction hitherto in this sphere is hejd to be no longer wise in hef own interests.’ In Australia and South Africa the merino breed Overwhelmingly predominates. New Zealand and South America are the homes 6f the cross-bred, which is kept principally for its carcass, though in the hands of skilful breeders it also provides good quality wool. A margin wider than once prevailed between prices for fine ana for coarse wools, together with a probable restriction in the outlet for mutton and lamb, has brought home / to the New Zealand sheep owner the near possibility of departure from accepted methods of sheep breeding if New Zealand is to maintaip her place as a sheep country. Particularly does this apply to the North Island, where anything but the dual purpose sheep is an exception. This,'on the authority of the Statistics and Intelligence Branch of the lately abolished Empire Marketing Board, is contrary to the world tendency, it having reported (in March, 1933) that “ fine wool production appears to be still inCreasihg at the expense of the coarser qualities. . . Demand in most wool-cohsumiiig countries has favoured the finer wools, and this explains the relatively smaller decjine in merino and fine cross-bretls as against coarser crpss-breds,” At the present moment the existing competition of rayon and other substitutes, and the threatened competition in at least one former bulwark of the wool market, Germany, from a substitute on which her technicians are working hard, stimulate the desirability of wool-growing countries concentrating on improvement of their fine wools, for the markets have for some seasons shown that it is with this that the advance of substitutes will have to be arrested or beaten back. Recently there has been a recurrence of anxiety among wool growers lest the market advance of, last season prove but temporary. So vital is this matter that an analysis of the situation by Mr J. M. Njall at the annual meeting of Goldsbrough, Mort, and Co., in Melbourne, last month may be worth quotation A very marked improvement took place in the wool market from June last year, culminating in the record prices secured in January. A slight fall took place in February, which was accentuated in the March sales. Since then prices have continued to drop, and at the later sales withdrawals were heavy, and the prospects for the sales arranged for this month were so unpromising that it was decided to postpone them indefinitely in the hope that the position would become less obscure than it is at present. The main factors that led to the •break in prices were: (1) Japanese competition being withdrawn from the sales in May, and subsequently. This may be only a temporary withdrawal on the part of the Japanese buyers, and may he a gesture of protest against recent action by the British Government in connection with the importation of Japanese goods. (2) Embargoes placed on the importation of wool into Germany and Italy, and the difficulty experienced by some European countries in obtaining* sterling to pay for their requirements. (3) The shrinkage of turnover in the French woollen manufacturing districts, possibly accentuated by the adherence of France to the gold standard. /4) A definite slackening of activity in the Yorkshire mills. It is difficult to estimate how long these adverse conditions are likely to Inst, but as the .stocks of raw wool are nowhere excessive, and there is an actual

shortage of fine merino, it seems reasonable to assume that there tnust be an improved demand before long. The high prices realised during the last twelve months may to some extent have diverted consumers from woollen goods to substitutes such as artificial silk, but I doubt if this could be on such a scale as to account for the recent fall in the wool market. While lam not unduly pes T simistic about the outlook, it has to bo recognised that present conditions are disturbing, and the prospects at the moment Tor the opertjng of the new season in September next are by no means satisfactory;

It is just a century since the real history of wool in New Zealand began. In J 834 Mr J. B. Wright brought 102 sheep from Sydney and landed them on Mana Island, in Porirua Efarr hour, near Wellington, and the following year his “ clip ” was sold in Sydney, but it was not till three, years later that bis “ clip ” reached the dimensions of four bales. Now New .Zealand ranks fourth or fifth in the world’s wool-producing countries, but it seems to be (judging from fluctuations in recent years round about a figure in the vicinity of thirty million sheep) a moot point whether her carrying capacity has been reached. If confidence could be reposed in the stability of the wool market, ahd if returns from dairying are considered likely not to return to the vicinity of former levels, it is probable that more -sheep and fewer cows will find grazing room, and the growing use of fertilisers should also tend to an increase in our flocks. Should this prove the case the duty of research into making the utmost profit psr sheep is obvious. In a pamphlet ad 1 - dressed to wool growers (‘The Truth About Wool ’) during the slump in the wool market, it was stated tbit expenditure on sheep farms had fallen below the requirements 1 for the maintenance of production and stock standards, so that one of New Zealand’s chief assets was depreciating in value, The folly of producing what Was not wanted was stressed, for wool buyers are now discriminating as they had no need to do when the world had plenty of money and wanted wool. To disturb the conception of wool as only a by-product to. the fat lamb export trade wil) be one of the Wool Research Council’s tasks, more particularly in the North Island. If it can demonstrate that quality in wool, early fattening, and quality in meat go hand in hand it will render good service.