SALE OF WOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23529, 18 June 1938, Page 3

SALE OF WOOL

THE DRAFT ALLOWANCE AUSTRALIAN VIEW OF CHANGE Threats by buyers to boycott the new i season’s sales on account of the abolition of the. draft allowance on wool are not taken seriously, but whether growers will benefit by the change is a very moot point (writes “Warp,” in the Sydney Mail). The near approach of the official opening of the 1938-39 wool season— July I—brings the question of the draft allowance once more to the fore. More or less officially, buyers are now said to be taking steps to combat the introduction of what one might call full-weight dealing in wool, although it seems to be rather late in the day to bring forward argument on the matter. Probably, however, buyers felt themselves secure from the actual abolition of the allowance, and now that it has apparently come to pass, or is about to, they are considering the adoption of the drastic action that from time to time has been suggested as a possible reply to growers’ insistence on the matter. We have pointed out repeatedly that the abolition of the allowance will make very little difference to the actual returns to the gfower, and have demonstrated that buyers will have to alter their limits so that they will pay no more for wool than they did previously. Naturally, buyers object to any alteration, even if only because of the dislocation and trouble attend-

ant on its Initiation, but when they go so far as to make threats of boycotts, such action would seem to suggest that they have something to gain from the maintenance of the allowance. Thus boycott talk will only make growers all the more determined to adopt the change in the belief that they have something to gain by insisting on the full application of such laws as have been passed by the various States.

The agitation against the draft allowance goes back for very many years—so that buyers may, perhaps, be excused for thinking that its end was not yet! The allowance was originally made to buyers as an offset to the inaccuracy of “steelyard” weighing, which, “having been found capable of allowing considerable fraud," was abolished as long ago as 1352. How long before that period the custom was recognised is uncertain, but it must have a history of well over 600 years. Certainly it was a very oldestablished rule in the trade when selling was commenced here. As far back as 1866 the late Mr Brodribb headed a delegation of growers who happened to be in England, asking for its abolition, but nothing was achieved. Other efforts followed, without anything very definite being accomplished until, in 1903, the Sydney wool brokers called representatives of banks and financial houses together and the London Wool Importers’ Committee was approached in the following year Nothing was achieved, however, and matters rested until 1908 when the Sydney Chamber of Commerce was approached, and, in the following year, a conference of the Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire in Sydney was also approached Another appeal met a blank refusal from no fewer than 630 firms (250 in the United Kingdom. 350 on the Continent, and 30 in the U.S.A.) which pledged themselves to buy absolutely no wool without the allowance. The war ended the controversy for a time, and little was heard of it during the “boom" times, but when the days of the depression came the matter was again broached, the Wool Inquiry Committee reporting that it was "doubtful whether this convenience is of such importance that it weighs against the irritation it causes in the trade amongst growers. The committee recommended that the end of the draft allowance should come with the close of the 932-33 season. Five years later we see the necessary spade work done the legislation passed, and—the draft allowance dead? Growers feel strongly on the mattter and generally seem to be determined. Just whether buyers will follow their words with actions remains to be seen, and there are complications ahead in the new season if both sides persist in their present attitudes.