AUSTRALIA’S WOOL.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 140, 28 May 1920, Page 7

AUSTRALIA’S WOOL.

A £30.0000,000 OFFER. THREE PAYMENTS IN SIX MONTHS SALE PLANS AND CONSUMERS’ RIGHTS. London, Mas - 15. Sir Arthur Goldfinch (.Director of Raw Materials), in a special interview for “The Sydney Sun,” said that Mr. Hughes’s project was sympathetically regarded. but it would be absolutely impossible for the Imperial Government to accede to the proposal that the sales of Australian wool should stop on September 30, leaving a three months’ hiatus in the market pending the arriva'. of the new clip. The English consumers, he said, must be considered as well as the growers, who had not fared badly under the Government’s contracts. The proposal would also involve the closing of a number of mills in France and Belgium, which were at present buying from owing to the condition of the exchanges. The Government, said Sir Arthur Goldfinch, could suspend the sales of old stocks after December, but certain disadvantages, viewed from Mr. Hughes’s standpoint, would arise therefrom such as the inability of Great Britain to hand over Australia s share of the profits before 1922. The present estimates of profit were based upon unsold wool, and were purely speculative. The profits might largely decrease if Mr. Hughes’s scheme was adopted. ’ Sir Arthur said that should Mr. Watt demand an immediate cheque of £10,000,000 he must be told that he he requested £10,000,000 on account, the Treasury would be advised to pav, also £10,000,000 in September, and" another £10,000,000 in December, provided the sales of Govemment wool were not hindered. Commenting on the report that Mr. Hughes had declared that all wool should henceforth be sold in Australia, Sir Arthur Goldfinch pointed out that shou’d the consumers suffer by this, the growers would ultimately gain no benefit by increased prices.