PROSPECTS FOR WOOL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21328, 1 November 1932, Page 12

PROSPECTS FOR WOOL

CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN SIR N. KATER'S OPINION REDUCED COSTS ESSENTIAL A warning that farmers should not expect any immediate substantial rise in the price of wool was given by Sir Norman Kater, tho well-known Australian grazier, who arrived by the Niagara yesterday from Vancouver on his return home from the Ottawa Conference. At Ottawa he co-operated with Mr. F. H. Tout, president of the Graziers' Association of New South Wales, in representing the Australian pastoral industry. " Since the conference," said Sir Norman, " I have been to England, and with Mr. Tout and Mr. Devereux, official representative in London of the Australian woolgrowers and a representative at Ottawa of the wool producers, I went to Bradford. So far as I could judge, the wool trade there appeared to be improving, but 1 learned nothing which would lead me to believe that wo may expect any substantial riso in wool prices for some time to comc. " I think it behoves all primary producing countries," he added, " to reconstruct their economic systems and cut down their costs to a degree comparable with the price levels of their export products." It would be dangerous, he said, for the farmers to carry on as they were doing in tho hopo that prices would return to tho boom level. If they did, so much the better, but Australia and New Zealand should adjust their costs immediately to the present level of prices. Then they would be proof against adversity. Tho view that both farming and manufacturing costs must come down was expressed by Mr. F. D. Stogdalo, importer, of Melbourne, who is returning by the Niagara to Australia after a business trip to Britain, the Continent, the United States and Canada. "It is 'ridiculous for us to think we can find overseas markets for the goods we produce in the Dominions when our manufacturing costs are so high," he said. Air. Stogdale also expressed the view that the Ottawa Conference had not gone far enough in the direction of securing lower manufacturing and producing costs.