PRODUCTION OF WOOL

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 12 September 1933, Page 6

PRODUCTION OF WOOL

DOMINION’S SHARE. FIFTH PLACE IN THE WORLD. New Zealand as a wool producer had third place within the Empire and fifth in the world with an output in 1932 of 116,000 tons, although sheep were reared primarily for meat. Like the United Kingdom, she has the best crossbreds in the world obtained by scientific breeding, and they give excellent w T ool as well as meat. These facts appear in a report recently issued by the Empire Marketing Board on “Fibres.” The report also reviews the world production and trade in cotton, silk, hemp, jute, and flax, of which the importance in the native trade may be gauged by their estimated value of £1,195,000,000. New Zealand's wool production in 1932 was double that of the United Kingdom, which receives SO per cent, of her exports. France w r as the next best customer, taking 6 per cent. Wool exports in themselves made up in value more than a quarter of all New Zealand’s export trade, but had to be added to those of South Africa and Argentina before equalling Australia’s output. Australia has the largest sheep population in the world, and accounts for nearly one quarter of the estimated total of the world’s supply of wool. Her sheep are mainly of the merino type, and are increasing in numbers. It is noted in .the report that during the slump merino held its price better than the crossbred. BRITAIN RECORD IMPORTER, I World wool is valued at £270 million, and of that the Empire’s share is nearly one half. The Empire as a whole is an exporter of wool on a very largo scale, although the United Kingdom in 1932 absorbed more wool than any other country. She is the best eusI tomer not only of New Zealand, but also of South Africa and Argentine, while. one-third of Australia’s exports enter her ports. But it must be remembered that Britain carries on an extensive entrepot trade. Jute hemp and flax have comparatively small roles to play in world trade. Jute to the value of £6O million enters the market, 99 per cent, coining from within the Empire, where it ranks third in value, being preceded by wool and cotton. Hemp, now understood to embrace all those fibres used in cordage manufacture, is grown mainly outside the Empire. But sisal hemp is the most important export of Tanganyika, where until .1930 there had been a steadily-increasing production. New Zealand's fibre is called pliormium ■ tenax, but her industry has been severely handicapped during recent years owing to the heavy fall in prices. She produced 22,000 tons of fibre in ' 1926, and only 15,000 in' 1930; more recent figures are not available. New Zealand divides her fibre exports between the United States (33 per cent.), the United Kingdom (22 per cent.), I and Australia (33 per cent.). The Em- j pire remains a net importer of manila. 1 COTTON 'THE CHIEF TEXTILE. Cotton, if judged by its output estimated at £520 million, is easily the leading textile material in the world. India and the United States have more land under cotton than the whole of the rest of the world, the former with .22,600,000 acres, the latter with 15 million more. But the difference in production is greater than would appear because cotton does not yield in proportion to the ground it covers. In India the yield is only 851 b to the acre, in the States nearly double that amount —1601b —while in Egypt it is as much as 4001 b to the acre. The world average is about 1501 b. It is the ) low yield of the Indian crop that re- 1 duces the Empire's share of world production to about 20 per cent, as against 33 per cent, of the world’s acreage. Countries within the Empire, other than India, which produce cotton arc Africa (South, East, and West), the British West Indies, Cyprus, Ceylon, j and Australia, but these combined, areas only make an infinitesimal frac-1 tion of the vast tracts covered by In-1 (Iran, cotton. During recent years there has been an increasing amount; of land cultivated for cotton in Ugan- j da and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, | while there lias been a decreasing , amount in India. I