COMMERCIAL

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1947, Page 8

COMMERCIAL

WOO L L E N ;■CL 0 T H \ -PRODUCTION. V ’ ’ LONDON, June 19. The International Wool Secretariat announced "that the. first consignment of Dominion wool has. left Britain for Germany, where it will bo processed by German factories as already announced. Some thousands of bales were consigned, the secretariat-says. Most of the processing’ is likely .to be done in the Russian zone, where more equip- . ment is available. ’/■ Since the end of the war the amount of wool cloth .entering the British home market ''->s increased by flbout-75 per cent, from 9,300,000 linear yards a month in the year ending August, 1945, to 16,400,000 linear ■ yards last January. This is disclosed in a series of figures issued by the Board of Trade in collaboration with the Wool Control, which show the 1 sharp expansion in British wool textile output since the war, states the Yorkshire correspondent of’Jthe International Wool Secretariat in.-/a-.message to the New Zealand Wool* Board. 4

In 1944-45 woven wool cloth production in the United Kingdom was 15,900,000 linear yards a month, but. this figure increased to 21,800,000 ■ linear yards in January last. Though this showed an increase of nearly 40 per cent., supplies for the civilian trade have increased much more, as a considerable volume of production once needed for war purposes is now available for civilian output. The survey shows; that the fuel famine last winter reduced the output of wool cloth v 8,000,000 linear yards in February, as compared with January, and efforts are now in progress to make good this deficiency. An encouraging feature is that the working population of the industry has increased by about 40,000 from the lowest level reached during the war. to its present figure of 178,000 Even so. the industry has recovered fewer than half JU ~ ;, kers lost during the war years, and many more are needed before the personnel reaches 200,000, the figure regarded by the recent/ Wool Working Party report as the minimum required to meet all calls upon production.

OVERSEAS TRADE FIGURES. WELLINGTON, June 19. The Minister of Customs (Hon. W Nash), to-night issued the overseas trade figures of New Zealand as follows: —

Values are expressed in terms of New Zealand currency. Import values include defence materials and equipment and also lend-lease supplies. GEAR MEAT. Advice has been rece‘v j d 'hat at a meeting of the directors of ..he Gear Meat Company, it was decided to pay an interim dividend for the half-year ended May 31 of 6d a share on June 26. R. & E. TINGEY, LTD. . R. & E. Tingey, Ltd., will pay a half-yearly preference dividend of 3 per cent, free of social and national security tax< on June 30. Books will close from June 24 to 30 inclusive.

Exports. £000 Imports. £000 Excess. Exports . ■ £000 Feb. 1947 10,152 6,922 3,230 Feb. 1946 10,187 5,432 4,755. Feb. 1945 6,159 4,045 2,114 Feb. 1944 4,495 5,452 *957 Jan-Feb. ” 1947 18,767 15,269 3,498 ” 1946 20,205 9,520 10,685 , ” 1945 10,887 8,811 2,076 ” 1944 12„541 10,195 2,346