King Country Chronicle Tuesday, July 21, 1936. THE MENACE OF WOOL SUBSTITUTES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4873, 21 July 1936, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Tuesday, July 21, 1936. THE MENACE OF WOOL SUBSTITUTES.

Two cable messages of considerable significance to woolgrowers were received recently. The first, which came from Melbourne, stated that the Australian Wool Board had adopted the proposal for a levy of sixpence a bale on wool to provide for research and publicity within Australia. The second message, which came from Sydney, quoted the Consul-General for Germany as saying, in an address at Hawkesbury Agricultural College, that Germany proposed to double her production of synthetic wool in 1937 or 1938 if her present difficulties in obtaining natural wool continued. Woolgrowers in the Commonwealth have been rapidly awakening to the menace of wool substitutes and have outpaced New Zealand growers in instituting a levy, although to judge by the resolution passed at the recent Dominion conference of the Farmers’ Union in Wellington, action in New Zealand should not be long delayed. The position of Australian growers is even more serious than the position in New Zealand, for in addition to the keen competition they have to face from wool substitutes their Government’s altered trade relations with three great wool-buying countries threaten to check the sale of wool and thus stimulate the demand for artificial fibres. Japan is proposing to retaliate by boycotting the Australian wool sales; Germany is dissatisfied with the facilities available to her for buying wool in Australia; and Italy, largely because of her restricted buying since sanctions were imposed, has turned to the production of staple fibre as a substitute for natural wool. A few days ago the Victorian pi’esident of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Australia (Mr. G. Vaccari) supplied the Melbourne Herald with some illuminating figures showing the rapid growth in the world production of rayon staple fibre in the last two years. The estimated figures are: —

Total .. 161,785 54,355 In- these two years the production of continuous rayon increased by less than 25 per cent., compared with a 300 per cent, increase in the production of staple fibre. It is now expected that the fibre will be worked on the same plant which has been used for combing, spinning and knitting of wool. Even more instructive of what can be done in producing wool substitutes has been Italy’s reaction to trade barriers and sanctions. When she failed to secure satisfactory trade treaties, Italy decided to develop the production of new textiles, including rayon staple fibre. Then when sanctions were imposed she began manufacturing casein wool, known as “lanital.” The Italian continuous rayon yarn industry was considered to be the most vulnerable to sanctions, since the bulk of the production was for export and in the year preceding sanctions 70 per cent, of the output had gone to the countries imposing the boycott.

It will be observed that in 1935 the combined consumption of rayon fibres was nearly three times as high as in 1934, while the consumption of staple fibre was practically five-fold. It is anticipated that the Italian production of staple fibre will shortly reach 150,000,000 pounds a year. This is more than the total amount of wool previously used by Italy. “Lanital” may well become another serious international competitor to wool, since the claims made for it are very high and its price is not by any means excessive. Then there is wolstra, which the German Consul in Australia claims has provided him with a suit as serviceable as the best English woollen material. The costs of all these wool substitutes should be considerably reduced by mass production, and their popularity will

unquestionably spread in countries prevented by trade barriers from obtaining supplies of natural wool. If there is now greater need than ever for a publicity campaign on behalf of wool and for intensive research into production methods from the raw material to the finished article, it is no less important that wool-pro-ducing countries should as far as possible keep open their markets to foreign countries which need natural wool but which will inevitably turn to substitutes if irksome restrictions are imposed.

Italy .. 1935. 1934. Thousand lbs. 77,000 22,000 Germany .. 53,000 20,000 Japan .. .. 12,000 2,400 France.. 8,000 4,200 Britain 7,105 2,890 U.S.A. 4,000 2,200 Poland 680 665