WOOL INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 15

WOOL INDUSTRY.

DEFECTIVE CLASSING. LOSS TO THE GROWER. The Agent-General, Sir Henry Barwell, recently forwarded to tho South Australian Government two communications from the secretary of tho Internation Wool Textile 1 Organisation concerning resoluthe secretary of the International Wool Conference held in Leige in September. At this conference, which was attended by representatives from Franco, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Czecho-Slovakia, Holland, Poland, Hungary, and England, the following resolutions were carried:— ■l. " Tho conference draws the attention of tho growers to the fact that the defective classing of wools causes not only damage to the users of the wool, but that it also results in reducing the price that tho buyer can pay to the grower. In conscquonce, the conference recommends to the growers to return to the careful classifications which were formerly recognised as exemplary, and hopes that the " small clips," which, by tho efforts of tho selling brokers, are collected and classed and constitute " repacked lots, shall have the most particular care at tho hands of the classifying brokers." 2. " The conference draws the attention of sellers of raw wool to the fact that a restriction of sales has the effect to retard all feeling of confidence in the market and insists that they publish tho programme of sales in sufficient time before tho opening of the season." Importance of Classing. Although large station clips are generally well-classed, small lots of wool offered for sale are often badly sorted, and consequently bring much lower prices, according to leading Adelaide wool brokers. With reference to the resolutions of the International Wool Conference it' was stated that small growers did not place enough importance upon tho classing of their wool. Tho School of Mines was doing a great amount of work in inculcating tho principles of classing, bufc not enough attention was paid to its advice. Farmers adopted the false economy practice of saving the small fee of an experienced wool classer, and the result was a big fall in values. Bales of good wool brought considerably below their value owing to the presence of a small quantity of low class wool or foreign matter. Another bad practice was that of sewing up bales with binder twine. The twine, when mixed with the wool and made into cloth, would not take the ordinary dyes, and, in consequence, had to be picked out by hand, which was an expensive and slow process. Mr. S. Williams, of Goldsbrough, Mort and Co., said that not enough attention was paid to the presence of earthy back in fleece wool. Buyers would not pay good top-making prices for mixed lots, owing to the inferior wool the bales contained. Much money was lost annually owing to the faulty classing of clips. New Zealand Practice. Ke-elassing by brokers was originated in South Australia immediately after the war, and last year 17,000 bales were gone over again before they went on the market. The movement was at a standstill, however, as many small growers wero disinclined to pay tho small extra cost. In Sydney, the classing was done co-oper-atively by the Farmers' Co-operative Society, which classed the clips of practically all the small growers. In Melbourne, also, 90,000 bales were classed last year, although the scheme was taken up only three years ago. In New Zealand, 50 per cent, of the wool of small growers was reclassed nder the co-operative system. It cost about id per lb., but more than paid for the cost by the increased return received.