The £ s. d. of Our Wool

NZ Truth, Issue 1063, 8 April 1926, Page 6

The £ s. d. of Our Wool

N.Z. Industries In Review. — No. 1.

Sheep Return the Dominion An Income of 10s. a SeMmd 1

SOME AMAZING FIGURES^

Do you realize that for the year ending March 31, 1925 New Zealand's wool trade earned the Dbminion ten^ shillings j>er second ? It is a rather startling statement; but. it is- a, &ct; . -^ ■ ■ ■-.?!'.

THE wool clip that year realized £14,639,718. That means "a return of £1,219,976 6s 8d per month, £302,496 6s 8d per week, £43,213 and a few odd. shillings per day^ £1800 per hour, £30 per minute, or ten shillings per second. Amazing, no doubt, but true. It means that for every hour ticked off by the clock during the year £1800 poured into' the coffers of the nations wealth. . ■ ■ * And all this, be it remembered, came from the wool on the sheep's back. - ■■,'.,'.'■ Sheep may have no brains, but what they lack m intelligence they make up for m revenue-producing qualities which bring benefit to every man, woman and child m the [Dominion,; whether'directly or indirectly. Analyse the position and see how it v-orks out. On the back of every sheep' there is an average of some , eight pounds of - fleece. According to' type, quality and condition it is worth anything, from 5d to 21d per pound, although m boom years the latter figure has been exceeded. The Labor Employed It does not sound very hiuch to say that the wool on a sheep's back is worth, on the average, at top prices, something like 15s ■ 9d, but as one swallow does not make a summ.er, one sheep does not make a wool, -clip. ' But m New Zealand last year there were no fewer than 23,775,776 sheep of : all grades ,d.°mg their duty, and between them they yielded a total of 165,913,624 pounds of wool, which was worth the tidy ' little sum of no less than £14,639,718. -' Not bad, this, when it is remembered that all that money is. more or less sheer profit from the flocks, the carcase values of which"' are m no way diminished by the clip: A shorn sheep lives to be shorn many times, while its carcase remains, a standing asset to be realised on should its owner decide to send it to the works. Hence, it is. not- too much to say that the .wool^s\ a by-product of the sheep, as dead ones yield none at all, and cohseciuentlj r ho profits. But the last word has not been said on the wool industry when reference has been made to the value of the sheep. Sheep cannot be shorn and the wool, marketed without labor. Last year, there -were' throughout -the Dominion 36,212 pastoral holdings, as distinct from agricultural and dairying. On all, or nearly all, of those holdings sheep are to be found m flocks varying m size from 500 to 20,000 head. And. on ihose 'same holdings, working m all' capacities from working proprietors down to female cooks, are employed 52,044 people. To clip the wool for the whole of the Dominion there arc 5480 shearing piants and 17,884 stands m existence and m operation during the shearing season. What all this means m wages and capital expenditure cannot 'be estimated with any degree of accuracy, but that these items alone run into several millions of pounds annually m obvious. What We Manufacture Only a small proportion of the Den ruinion'3 output of ■ wool remains. in this country, but small as it is it is responsible for some amazing figures. There are twelve woollen ' mills operating, employing 2620 hands, who receive annually m wages the sum of £396,436. The value of the land and buildings connected with^these mills is £ 262,766, and the plant used is worth another £437,229. These mills .handled, last jtai- no fewer than 4;951,670 pounds oC scoured wool,- which was worth tl}e surprising sum of £551,719. > "

...In/ the face of .this, where is. the ; justification for- the r complaints that . New Zealand exports all her wool and then has to buy back 1 the finished ; article at. high prices? : Read the following- returns of : what New ' Zealand manufactures from wool and then decide, for yourself. ;, v -■- . | The twelve mills produced during the year under review: — • ■ : •. -. 1,273,780 yards of tweed, : - 1,526,579 yards of flannel, j 105,433 pairs of blankets, 52,149 rugs and shawls, arid 435,591 pounds of yarn. - *■■ .The whole of those products realized a total value of £ 1,132,082. Then there -are the wool .scouring v/crks, for they also',. play a part m yielding the golden, harvest from the wool.'" - Tannery, fellmongering, and wool scouring works number .62 and employ 1,412 hands, who received last year m wages £288,317. >' ■■> ' The land and buildings are worth ■P. 269,517, and the plant used is valued at. £149,397:-: •: ■■, . The ; greasy wool handled at these \7orks amounted to 31,658,889 pounds, and the slipe wool produced was 2» 033,929 pounds. „.'. ,^ ; , The output of these works .was. v worth £2,463,227, although a good . percentage of this represents the ' value. of skins and hides. ' So much for the actual production^ side of wool. >"■/ . . Next come the. benefits that aeerue -. to the man m the street. Were it not lor wool there would be thousands oj : unemployed walking about" the :- streets^, of our cijties to-day. . i '/ Other Benefits V Think of the large staffs of wool < cJassers, laborers, agents, lorry drivers, '■ cierks and others' required to prepare the exportable wool for the ships that are to carry it. to the world's markets., Imagine the revenue derived by. the State through transport charges to the various ports from the carriage u£ v-'ool on the railways. Consider what vool has meant to ■■ thq motor-loir y^ owners and the manufacturers of those lorries. And have you considered what wool means to the business man or woman, bp they m a big or a small way, m e\ery town and city m the country? A good wool season means fat cheques for the farmers. They come to town and. spend those cheques m a hundred and one different ways. They buy implements, fencing, tools to improve their: holdings, thereby stimulating trade and employment:. They buy motor-cars, clothes,;" fur-' niture for their houses, piano's, -grama - pi- ones, and other ' household goods tnat they could not afford to buy were " it not for the' wool on the sheep-'s backs. ■'„■. '-■..>":. Wool causes money to go round, trade 's stimulated everywhere, and there" is a constant and steady demand- for all kinds of articles which can only be secured irt towns and cities. ..''■"■' That demand calls for a steady sup • rJy-from the local and overseas sources of manufacture, which means regular employment and prosperity for everybody. . ? Indirectly wool plays an important part m filling the houses of entertainnent; it enables women to dress well, the wKarfie to enjoy his pint, of beer' and the suburban dweller to pay "his annual golf and tennis club subscrintion. .■■>, ■;•■■ - :There is no limit to the .'influence which wool exercises on the prosDeritv of the Dominion, so don't blame the. cocky when you hear he is getting h:gh prices .for his wool' &eum S Everybody, directly or indirectly shares the cookies' joy and beJefita accordingly. .."euejua Ten shillings a second from the wool alone. Can any other coun! try of New Zealand's size and ...[population. Boast of suchah incoSt from one industry? " °™ ; ;