THE SHIPPING PROBLEM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14038, 22 April 1920, Page 7

THE SHIPPING PROBLEM.

I COARSE CRQSSBHED WOOL OVERPLENTIFUL. 1 Fib Vress Association. WELLINGTON, April, 21. A letter dated February 16, and sent by. the Director-General of liaw Mate-, rials,' London, to Mr Massey, contains clie fo Hawing' passages:—' '1 am sorry to say that: very considerable difficulty is expected in carrying out the arrangements to lift the whole of the lian and New Zealand wool before the end of the year. Steamers carrying meat and wool are experiencing very great delay in th© iThames, and elsewhere. iii British' waterSjiiYCry "largely owing to the difficulty in:-dealing with meat. The carrying power on steamship lines working with New Zealand I ana Australia is thereby reduced by at least 20 per cent-., and they arefinding it impossible to deal with the j cargo offering for shipment in the two dominions. It is true tha.t this Department lias a. contract)- with the Australian Refrigerated Tonnage Committee to lift tlio entire balances-of the 1 Government purchase of wool-f before i November 30. Unfortunately the Ship- i ping Controller intervened to press upon these steamers the .shipments of wheat which were not specially contracted for. We are protesting -against ,such interference, but the fact is that, as regards 46's, our market is very well supplied, and as regards coarser grades of wool considerable; stocks >are lying dead' on our hands. It- is therefore extremely difficult for us to maintain that shipment of 70,000 bales of new wool per month, largely consisting of medium and coarse crossbreds, and; we are afraid we shall be; compelled for some months to come to allow the shipments from New Zealand to fall to 40,000 bales monthly, or even less. The existing market- conditions indicate pretty clearly the probability as regards low crossbreds. A full year's' clip, equal to about 200,000 bales, is likely to remain on the Imperial Government's hands when your next clip begins to be gathered. The. time must surely come when the largV masses' of: the people in the impoverished parfis\ of Europe cannot afford to pay for luxuries, and will provide a demand on a large scale for useful woollen clothing made out of coarse crossbreds, hut' it must be ; admitted that the market shows no signs of such a demand making ltgelf felt. On the contrary, we hear, tnat in the United States holders of coarse crossbreds from : New Zealand and South America are breaking pricesbadly in a desperate effort to find aii outlet for this dead stock, but they are not finding that this helps sales much, Tt. must- be clear to you that sooner or later the question must be ; faced whether too much coarse'fcrossbred wool is not being grown, in view of the infinitely better prices, which are now being paid for fine crossbreds."