Wool on Wheels

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 147, 24 June 1939, Page 9

Wool on Wheels

STILL EXPANDING MARKET The development of new types of fabric, as the rayons, and the still newer weaves of staple fibre adopted by Continental countries out of economic necessity and not of choice, threatened for a time to entrench seriously upon the long recognised wide domain of wool. For some purpose these new fabrics have displaced wool, but wool to-day is staging a remarkable comeback* thanks to the results achieved, partly by research and partly through the spur of completition in the production of clouds and materials not earlier conceived as possible of manufacture from pure wool. The International Wool Secretariat, formed and financed to look after the advancement of the woollen industry in the interests of the wool growers of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, in February last outlined a plan of advance by educating the public, particularly of Britain and tne Continent, in the possibilities of new and wider fields of use of wool, and in the course of its survey commented upon the potentialities of the motor industry, pointing out that hitherto wool had not been used to any large extent in British motor cars, but stating that a campain to emphasise its desirability had been planned, with the co-operation of car manufacturers. That lead has apparently already been taken up by the English Press and has received, in particular, warm support from the Manchester Guardian, which agrees with the secretariat that the opportunities for the employment of wool fabrics in this direction are immense and that expansion of the present market would be of inestimable value to the industry.