AUSTRALIAN COTTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20701, 26 April 1929, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN COTTON.

PROGRESS OF INDUSTRY, ; : ; ITS VARIED CAREER. , (From Ocb Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 4. ■ - The cotton industry in Australia is one . that has had a varied career, and even now. its future is in ,doubt, because. the policy of the Government towards, it ■*- is still uncertain. The Minister of Cuatoms said the other day that' “ any de- ' cision to commit this country to the;.' manufacture of the whole of its cotton . goods from white grown Queensland cot-. ;’ ton must be a progressive one. and must - lead within a few years to the manufacture of all onr cotton requirements in this country.” This statement, like *: most official statements when an uncertainty of policy exists, was ambiguous • enough to satisfy the ideals of an" suc-V cessful . politician. . V It. was, probably, .: meant, to be,:ao. The Minister: was givririg • reasons • why the ■ Voluminous report ? of the Tariff ; Board on the cotton try should not be made available until' the Government had decided what its' ' cotton policy was to be, . This has been - under consideration for some years, and it has been altered from time to time; .' leaving growers and manufacturers alike * in a maze of indecision, T

To date the condition of the cotton 1 industry in Queensland has been governed mostly by the state of the world’s markets, and there are many who con. ' tend that it would be better, for the irir > dustry if it were to continue so. Goveminent pampered industries do not ap- , v pear to_ have been a great success nr? Australia. Growing was begun in Queensland in 1860, when a modest crop of 14 acres was harvested. In .10 years that area had increased to 14,000 acres,, and the industry throve during the civil war in America, when supplies from that country ceased. When the United States began producing again, Queensland growers could ' not compete, and used their land fpr other purposes, so . that in 1888 only 37 acres were planted. Low prices kept Queensland out of production until 1913, when the State Goveminent advanced lid a lb on seed cotton, and ginned it on the owners’ account.

' During the war prices went up again, and from 1920‘ to 1923 the Queensland Government was able to guarantee sfd a lb for seed cotton of good quality. The guarantee had-the effect of raising the ■ area under cotton from 166 acres in 1920 ’ to 60,196 In 1924. In 1926 the Com-, monwealth Government, granted a * bounty of 1-Jd a lb on the better grades and_|d on the lower grades. It also’■ subsidises the cotton manufacturing in.-.- ~ dustry with a graduated bounty varying from l-3d to Is a lb on all cotton yam manufactured in Australia which contained 60 per cent, home-grown cotton; When' the Commonwealth ‘bounty was granted, and the Queensland guarantee . lapsed, a cotton pool was formed in : Queensland, and a board Was elected to ■ control the financing, handling, and marketing of all the cotton grown within 1 the State. The whole of the 1927 output' was’ sold to Australian spinners on the basis of import parity prices, the net return to the growers being, with the subsidy, 5d a lb for top grade seed cot-, ton. A considerable curtailment of the ; demand by Australian manufacturers in 1928 made it necessary for the bulk of ' the crop to be sold on the Liverpool mar? ‘ ket; and that fact led to a strong ds- 1 mand for the stabilisation of the industry. The Tariff Board thereupon set out ' on still another of its long inquiries, 5 and its report is now before the hesitant /; Government. . '