AUSTRALIAN WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES AT MELBOURNE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5833, 19 November 1880, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES AT MELBOURNE.

(Australasian. )

None of the industries of Victoria are more important or more deserving of our best attention thau the manufacture of woollen cloths. The raw material for their production being obtainable on the spot in inexhaustible supply, it was only reasonable to expect that a large development would before long take place in the conversion of this raw material into the finished form of the woven fabric. The

display here made of tweeds, coatings, blankets, and flannels amply justifies this expectation. Although it is only 13 years since the first woollen mill was started in Victoria, there are now nine in existence, four of which areatGeelong, one atßallarat, one at Castlemaine, one at Warrnambool, one at Williamstown, and one at Yarraville. They employed in the year ending 31st March, 1880, 814 hands, and tho value of the fabrics produced wa3 £173,239. Six of these mills have sent samples of their work, and the least impartial judq;e cannot help admitting, after a fair examination, that, at any rate as regards tweeds, the best of thoso exhibited by Victorian manufacturers need not fear comparison with any of a similar kind that are shown in the British and foreign courts of the Exhibition. Messrs Alex. Gray and Co., proprietors of the Albion Woollen Mill, Geelong, have on all previous occasions like the present carried off the palm for the manufacture of tweeds of a superior quality and style. At the exhibitions hold at Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia, as well as at the first held in Sydney, they received medals of the first class for their exhibits. This is no small credit to a firm who only commenced operations on the banks of the Barwou so receatly as 1869. Messrs Gray and Co., however, having determined to produce the best tweeds that could be made here, spared no expense from the first to obtain effective machinery and workmen, and having always used a good quality of wool the result has fully justified their foresight and enterprise. The samples of the Albion tweeds are contained in a show-case made by the factory carpenter. It is oblong in shape, measuring 12 feet by 6 feet ; is 9 feet high, and is stained black, with gilt edges. Tho lengths of tweed, about 80 in number, are hung on all the four sides of the case, and a brass rod runs midway round it to keep them well in their place. The tweeds exhibited are all of the kind adapted for the best class of tailoring business, and for substance, firmness of texture, clearness of color, and stylishness of pattern, they will bear comparison with any similar productions of Yorkshire or the West of England, and co\ild not fail to meet with approval if shown on the counters of the most fashionable professors of the sartorial art in Bond-street or Piccadilly.

Resides Messrs A. Gray and Co.'s own exhibits there is a smaller collection of their tweeds shown by Messrs Gray Brothers, of Latrobe-street. Some of these differ in pattern from the others, and they have been selected with much taste ; but the remarks already made will apply to them also. Attention, however, may be directed to the three full piecw which are on the table, as they are particularly good examples of the style and quality of these tweeds. The Barwon Woollen Mill Company have sent a smaller selection of their tweeds than the Albion, and they are, generally speaking, of quite a different style. The patterns are mostly more distinctly and pronounced in character, some of the stripes being very ornamental and likely to attract the eye.

The tweeds manufactured by the Victorian Woollen and Cloth Manufacturing Company, Geelong, are of a kind more suited for the ready-made trade than for the best class of tailoring business • and this company, which was the first to commence operations in this branch of manufacture, has always done a large business in tweeds with the ready-uiade clothing establishments of Melbourne and the other !, chief towns of the colony. The trouserings exhibited consist mostly of stripes and checks, and the make known as buckskin. This is a cloth with a small but well-marked twill running diagonally through it, and it is made in various shades of grey, drab, and brown. The samples here shown are greys. They are stout and substantial in texture, though they might, perhaps, be improved by having the th*s#ds twisted le harder, which would make them more durable.

The Ballarat Woollen Company exhibits a very fair collection of manufactured goods. The tweeds are mostly of a cheap quality, suitable for slops, and are rather loud in pattern; but they are doubtless adapted to the taßtes of a mining community, and considering that the factory has only been in operation for a few years, they are very creditable. It also exhibits a few pieces of coating and a good stout blue serge. There are some blue and scarlet flannels and shawls, clear and bright in color, and one shawl in particular of a rather elaborate pattern. It is composed of black and white squares, which melt off into gradations of grey with colored transverse bars, forming larger squares across the main pattern. The Melbourne Woollen Mill Company has its factory at Yarraville on the Saltwater River, the only one of the kind "as yet established in the neighborhood of the metropolis. It employs about 100 workpeople, and produces 130,000 yards of tweed per annum. The tweeds exhibited consist of stripes, plain mixtures, and buckskins. They are stout substantial goods, of a medium quality, and being turned out at a moderate price, are very suitable for the ready-made clothing trade. The Castlemaine Woollen Company is the only one that sends no tweeds. A few blankets of very fair quality are shown, but the speciality of this company ia its flannels. These are shown in a variety of colors — white, soai'lbt, blue, and pink. The white flannels are really excellent, being clean and bright in color, soft in feel, and firm in texture. They deservedly obtained a first-class medal at the Sydney Exhibition.