SAFEGUARDING OF WOOL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20706, 2 May 1929, Page 10

SAFEGUARDING OF WOOL.

PURCHASES MADE FOR CONTINENT. SUPERIORITY OF BRITISH CLOTHS. (Fbom Oub Own CoebespondEnt.) LONDON, March 14. Mr Ashley Mitchell, fancy worsted manufacturer and a former president of the Huddersfield Textile Society, was a witness called by the opposition at the Board of Trade inquiry into the application for the Safeguarding of the Woollen and Worsted Textile's Industry. ." The group of manufacturers in Huddersfield who oppose the'application,” he said, ‘‘wish to protest strongly against the idea that Huddersfield products need ' any protection, and regard the present inquiry as very damaging to the British' woollen industry. In pre-war days Bradford and district makers were constantly complaining of the competition of foreign imports in dress' goods and seeking artificial protection for their manufactures. I never heard it suggested in those days that the pre-war imports were, not competitive, or that the . the Bradford manufacturers could not make anything that was imported.” , That sections of the Bradford industry were not unprosperous was shown by the prosperity, of the Bradford Dyers’ Association and Woolcombers, Ltd. Specialisation in’ the woollen and worsted ■ trade was very marked. Mr Comyns Carr, .K.C.: Is it a fact that, though only, a small firm, yours produces what may seem to be the astonishingly largo number of 4000 new patterns every year That is not a big number at all. Some Huddersfield firms I know produce as many as 20,000 new patterns in‘a year. , \ It was, he said, well known that Continental makers purchased short fine wools at the London wool sales which were neglected by the, worsted section of the West Riding, and they had acquired experience .in manipulating these wools, primarily for single yarns, so that they were able to hold a considerable share of the dress goods trade.’ It wap agreed that the imports of woollen and worsted cloths were mainly ia -the lower priced foods. ... In . the higher, priced classes Iritish cloths were, admittedly superior, owing to the higher, efficiency of British labour. Foreign makers had attempted for years to, compete with better class British fabrics, which they had offered at lower prices, but they had failed to deliver the quality required; nor could they offer the variety which- buyers insisted upon seeing. WHO SETS THE FASHION? While Mr Mitchell was giving evidence regarding cheap cloths made from wool, cotton, and “shoddy,”, he produced a tiny pair of boy’s trousers “to ‘show, what can be done-with this kind.of stuff.”— (Laughter.) "It actually is-a commercial product sold for children at a certain famous stores for sixpence,” he said. “It shows what would happen to us in the men’s trade if men’s trousers shrunk the same as women’s skirts do!” —(Laughter.) Mr Carr; In the men’s trade who seta the fashion? Mr Mitchell: Huddersfield. Mr Carr: Some of our friends in the West of England may think that they do. At any rate, it Js England, whether Huddersfield or the West of England?—Yes. Mr Carr: Do you find that in the men’s trade the foreigners 'keep up to you in. designs, or come in afterwards?—They copy a year or so afterwards. They are. offering the same sort of thing in a lower quality of wool; but it is not the article, and it is not the thing that the buyers want. ' .