Wool Output in Britain Climbing

Northern Advocate, 17 June 1947, Page 4

Wool Output in Britain Climbing

(Special)

WELLINGTON, This Day.

Since the close of the war the amount of wool cloth entering the British home market has increased by approximately 75 per cent from 9,300,000 linear yards per month in lire year ending August 1945, to 16,400,000 linear yards last January. This is disclosed in a series of figures issued by the Board of Trade in collaboration with the Wool Control, which show the sharp expansion in British wool textile output since the war, states the Yorkshire correspondent of the International Wool Secretariat in a despatch to the New Zealand Wool Board.

In the difficult year 1944-45 woven wool cloth production in the United Kingdom was 15,900,000 linear yards per month, but this figure had been increased to 21,800,000 linear yards in January last.

Though this showed an increase of nearly 40 per cent, supplies for civilian trade have increased in much larger proportion, as a considerable volume of production once needed for war purposes, is now available for civilian output. FUEL FAMINE The survey shows that the fuel famine of last winter had the effect of reducing the output of wool cloth by 8,000.000 linear yards in February, as compared with January, and efforts are now in progress to make good this deficiency in production. An encouraging feature is that the working population of the industry has increased by about 40,000 from the lowest level reached during the war, to its present figure of 178,000. Even so, the industry has recovered less than half of the workers lost during the war years, and many more are needed before the personnel reaches 200,000—the figure regarded by the recent Wool Working Party report as the minimum number of workers required to enable the industry to meet all calls upon its production.