WOOL PACKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19350, 10 December 1924, Page 8

WOOL PACKS.

SUBSTITUTE FOE JUTB. FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY OVERCOME. (Feom Oub Own Cobeebpondbnt.) LONDON, October 2L Since the wool growers attended the Bradford Conference and examined the samples of packs made of wool some new developments seem to have taken place. It will bo remembered that the packs that were submitted were to cost about 16s, and even, if these were suitable the question was how to make up for the extra cost. Since then the president of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce has been making experiments and appears to have produced packs made from wool which cost no more to manufacture than the jute packs. “The wool canvas submitted to the conference,” say® The Yorkshire Observer, “was enormously thick and strong. Made on these lines the pack would cost from 15s to 18s as a minimum, and this led to the proposal being made that the first cost should be divided between the grower and the buyer. And because of its substance and cost it was to be used over and over again—for four or five or more journeys—before finding its way as scrap into the Dewsbury trade One of the weaknesses p£ the proposal was that it involved returning emptv packs; another was the high cost. It would have meant that some big firms would sink anything from £15,000 to £30,000 in packs. “Mr Aykroyd’s solution of the difficulty is a woof pack that will not cost appreciably more than the jute one. That may sound incredible; nevertheless it is not theory but an accomplished fact. Realising that the price of the wool pack as originally proposed was likely to prove an obstacle to its general adoption, Mr Aykroyd has devoted a good deal of thought to the problem of reducing the cost. He conceived the idea of making the wool canvas much lighter and less substantial than the one originally contemplated amply strong enough for one iourney, reinforced by metal bands, but cheap enough to be discarded after one trip.- As a further means of reducing the cost, the bale under hia system of packing, will be one of scwf> instead of the regulation 3owt 3qr.

PRESS-BALED ON THE STATIONS. “Mr Aykroyd has had three qualities of wool canvas packs made. One of them can actually be produced at a less cost than tho jute pack; tho second can be made at the same price as the jut© article, and the third costs Is more. (It must not be forgotten that the new pack will hold a half more than the one mode of jute.) A present the fleeces are haled in the jute packs on the sheep station, and when tho bales reach the docks the shippers—in their own interests as a means of economising space—apply steel bands round them. Under Mr Aykroyd’s scheme the wool will be press-baled and the bands applied on the sheep station. In other words, tho wool will be prepared for shipment in one operation on the sheep station. “This means that the wool grower will need a standard hand-power press, and Mr Aykroyd had such a press already in course of construction. The “cockatoo farmer’— the man with 10Q or 200 sheep—does not pack his own fleeces: ho throws them into a wagon and carts them into the nearest village, where af the local stares the packing is done. In order to deal with these small clips, therefore, the village stores would need to have a press. EXTRA SHILLING CHARGED TO THE TRADE.

“Of the three qualities of wool packs made Mr Aykroyd recommends that which costa Is more than the jute one. It is a good, strong, serviceable canvas, eminently satisfactory. His proposal, though this may be subjected to modification after negotiation, is that the squatter should charge the 2s to the trade, which would recoup itself by selling the tare for use in the Dewsbury industry. So far as tue wool grower is concerned, the only additional liability over and above jute pack costs will be the hand?ower press and the steel reinforcing bands, n the case of the press the first cost will bo the last, practically speaking. “But it is considered that the grower should be_ able to obtain from' the shippers a rebate in consideration of relieving them from work they at present have to do, and this should about redress the balance. One of the factors favourable to the new baling method from the growers’ point of view is that there will be a saving in the weight of the tare, as compared with Scwt of wool carried in jute packs. Thus, so far as can. be seen, it will be passible to put the much desired wool pack practically on level terms, so far as its cost is concernd, with the reprobated jute pack. If the scheme can be carried out it will bo nerhaps the greatest achievement of the trade for 40 years past.

STIMULUS TO TRADE. “Apart from relieving the trade of the enormous cost involved in extracting the jute fibres, the new baling system, if it be adopted, will be beneficial in other ways. Australia will want 2,(XX), 000, South America 1,000,000, and the Cape and New Zealand another 1,000,000 between them. It 'will need 57,000 hales of wool to supply packs for the world’s clips. Thus a stimulus will be given to the production of lower quality wools. What is much more important is that all the work represented by the making of this new material will come into the West Riding and give a welcome fillip to trade. In addition, the pack may be expected to cheapen rather than advance in price, because the material is one upon which it will be possible to employ the automatic loom. •‘There is another good point about the now pack. There is every prospect that it will mean a great boon to the trade in respect of transport charges. Mr E. A. Hilder, the transport officer of the West Riding Traders’ Railway Association, givei it as his opinion that the new bale of scvtt press-packed on the lines proposed, will enable wool to be carried on the lowest basis. For years the trade has been agitating to get wool carried at the same rates as cotton, but all efforts have proved of no avail because of the greater bulk of wool, weight for weight. The new bale, press-packed, will, it is said, get over this difficulty and enable wool to be carried at as low rates as any commodity. Cheap transport of raw material should have a far-reaching effect in bringing down cost of production.” •

Many benefits were conferred on his kingdom by the first King of England. He organised public markets and unified coinage, set tree a large number of slaves yearly, and prohibited the capital punishment of youths, ameliorated the harsh Saxon laws, translated the Gospels into Saxon for general use, and encouraged exploration and trade by making every merchant who made three voyages a Thane.