A CHEERFUL NOTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 10

A CHEERFUL NOTE.

A welcome note of encouragement has been sounded by the chairman of the Wellington Woollen Company in his afldress at the company's annual meeting yesterday. Mr. Barber's observations no doubt referred particularly to the prospects of the woollen manufacturing industry, but there is a general application in his confident declaration that "the wave of depression shows undoubted signs of passing." It is to general economic conditions that the special difficulties experienced by this company have been attributed in the last two annual reports, and it is to a general improvement that the company looks for the realisation of the brighter prospects discerned by its chairman. Mr. Barber's judgment is not based merely upon that easy optimism which is the beginning of recklessness. A year ago he did not feel justified in predicting an early release from the difficulties that were then pressing upon commerce and industry. He frankly warned the company's shareholders that the prospects were uncertain and that keen competition must be met in disposing of its output—a forecast that has been fully justified by the past year's conditions and results. When one who is both the

head of an important manufacturing company and a prudent commentator on economic conditions commits himself to such a definite estimate of the outlook, those with more limited opportunities for observation may well take encouragement from his pronouncement. Mr. Bai'ber's opinion that wool will retain its present value will be particularly welcome. Wool is still the largest single item in the Dominion's production for export, and any variation in prices is multiplied into a large factor in the Dominion's prosperity. In 1024-25, the exports exceeded £18,000.000, but in the following season, owing to an average decline in prices of 35 per. rent., t.hev barely exceeded £12.000,000. With a moderate advance in both quantity and value, the exports in 102627 were worth £12,884.000. Mr. Barber's forecast does not suecest the attainment of anv new records during the romina season, but it dorp indicate that wool will br n depend nblr rommoditv, and with an exnansion in the v<~>hi ,T, r «"if prodnrfinn from tlie larrrrr flocks there mav be n increase in the return To wool growers