MARKET FOR WOOL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22961, 12 February 1938, Page 15

MARKET FOR WOOL

CHANGES IN CHINA

FUTURE POSSIEMLITIES

NEW ZEALAND'S PROSPECTS

[by telegraph—own correspondent] "WELLINGTON, Friday

The importance to New Zealand of markets in China was stressed today by the Rev. G. W- Sheppard, secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society in China for 15 years and 23 years before that a missionary in the Far East. ■ "It is perhaps not often realised," said Mr. Sheppard, "that New Zealand's commercial future may depend very much on markets in Chink. Wool, one of the chief primary products of the Dominion, is beginning to find favour among Chinese people, as a material for clothing. Hitherto the Chinese have been clad in cotton, with their garments padded in winter and piled on in almost Incredible numbers according to the intensity of the cold. They are beginning to realise the great superiority of woollen materials for winter wear and already in the ports and larger cities more well-to-do people are wearing woollen winter coats or gowns. . - . - "There is an immense market tor woollen goods yet to be developed and when peace and stable conditions return once more in China New Zealand may look in that direction for one of her opportunities in commerce. "Among the wealthier classes of Chinese people great changes' in diet are rapidly coming into vogue," continued Mr. Sheppard. "Dairy produce is in increasing demand. We must, however, remember that happy and profitable commercial relationships depend ultimately on a sound background of moral principle. The work the Bible Society is doing in popularising the Christian Scriptures in the Far Last is of cardinal importanco to our future relations with those great Oriental nations."