THE RURAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23829, 8 June 1939, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD

V FARM AND STATION NEWS • V ’ A,

By RUSTICS

1939 SHOW SEASON June B.—Dunedin Winter Show. SHEEP DOG TRIALS Tuapeka -June 26; 27 2B Tal Tapu, Christchurch (South island and NeW Zealand championships) —Commence June 19 WOOL PUBLICITY THE INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES EFFORTS AT HOME AND ABROAD LONDON, May 11. In view of the stimulus which has been given to the export of British textiles to the United States through the Anglo-American Trade Agreement, It is interesting to learn that the International Wool Secretariat has cooperated -with the Fine Woollen Export Trade Committee' in. an exhibit of British fine woollens’ for the New York Fait \ The secretariat is confident that this exhibit will be the means-of creating a great deal of interestln these cloths, which art typical of the materials required by a very important section of the American public that still looks to Great Britain as the leader of style and design in men’s and women’s fashionable woollens. \ . In addition to this exhibit at the fair, the secretariat is conducting publicity work in the United States for wool in general

There is a tremendous field for an increase in the consumption of wool in the United States, where the per capita annual, consumption ■ is only 4.11 b of greasy woob—only half the amount consumed per head of the population in Great Britain—or, for that matter, also /in Australia. With a population of 130,000,000 obviously ah Increase per capita of lib of wool would have a tremendously important Influence on the United States demand in the primary markets. The secretariat feels that by judicious! publicity, such results- can eventually bo achieved., Through the . press, by radio, by fashion releases to all the leading-fashion designers and departmental; stores throughout the United the secretariat is sparing no, effort .to stimulate interest, and increase the consumption of wool, j Wool Dresses for the Queen The secretariat is justifiably proud of its achievement in arranging this interchange of gifts, of which reference has previously been made widely in the press of Great Britain and the United States. The original proposal Which was eventually agreed to, was that H.M. the Queen, on the occasion of her visit to the United States, should accept from the woolgrowers of the United States a dress woven in America from the finest American wool, and Mrs Roosevelt, for her part, should accept a dress as a gift of the woolgrowers of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Canada.

The secretariat,, through its • representative in New York, ■ secured the acceptance of these proposals, by the National. Association of Woolgrowers and Mrg : Hbosevelt,-and it ,remained

Items a# interest to those engaged in agricultural arid pacJora! pursuits, with a view to their publication In these columns, will f»e welcomed. They should be addfesoed to Rusticua, Otago Daily Timas, Dunedin,

for the secretariat to secure the acceptance of H.M. the Queen. The matter was taken up by the Secretariat with the Dominions Office, a strong case being made t bf the importance of the proposals to. dominions and British wool interests. Thanks to the warm support oi the Dominions Office and the personal intervention of the Secretary of State for the Dominions, her Majesty, after discussing the matter with the King, decided to accept the gift from the American growers, it be:,pg stated that this departure from precedent was due to the recognition of the importance of the wool industry and the serious position confronting it at the present time. , Mrs Roosevelt made her approval conditional on that of the Queen, and in due course signified her acceptance of the dominions 7 gift. In view of the fact that the visit of their Majesties was to take place in midsummer, it was felt that advantage should be taken of this to give -publicity to the coolness and lightness of the nevv wool dress fabrics, and it was possible to arrange that both the Queen and Mrs Roosevelt selected light-weight materials for formal afternoon dresses. Prior to the despatch of the Queen’s material, Mrs Roosevelt attended a press: conference arranged by the secretariat. at which, Senators representing., the . wool-growing : States’ Were present and the material was formally handed to' Commodore-' Irving, of the. Queen Mary for transport to England. The , Queen Mary was met at. Southampton by a member ,of -the secretariat, who accepted the material for transfer to her Majesty. One of the results of this project has been to promote most friendly relations with the United States woolgrowers. and to focus their attention on the secretariat, which, otherwise, would have taken months of preparatory, work. ‘ It will, be noticed that Canada is associated In the gift to Mrs Roosevelt from the dominions woolgrowers. Although at the present time, Canadian woolgrowers are not contributors to the secretariat's funds, on receipt of a request from them to be thus associated, it Was decided, after due consideration. to agree. It ,is hoped that this association may lead to an active participation by this Dominion in the secretariat’s Work, •, -'British. -Activities ’ In its showroom at Bush House, the secretariat recently held a very successful showing of the new colourprinted wool fabrics to a representative attendance of the most important London arid ProvincialAetailers. Considerable publicity was given to these fabrics throughout the press in Great Britain, the Continent and the United States. The future for the light-weight printed wool fabrics shown was considered to be bright, and the London representative of the important Fairchild Publications of New York said that the secretariat had opened up what would prove to be a new and most important additional field of wool consumption. Lectures to Staffs The lectures to sales staffs, on the principal virtues and selling, points of wool have been continued steadily during the past month, and have met with a. most-appreciative reception,. as shown by the requests for repeat lectures • and for additional lectures to bran dies of. stores already visited. - Up to the end of March 50 .lectures have been given, the average attendance being 80, so that about 4000 salesmen arid women have heard the lectures. The secretariat is confident that as a result there, cannot fail to be an increase in sales of wool in all these stores. From figures supplied’ by a leading Oxford street store, it is estimated that the annual sales of the 4000 salesmen’ hearing the lectures would amount to £2,000,000 per annum. The staff > controller for a leading Manchester stare estimates that the store’s wool sales should show an increase of some £SOOO annually (10 per cent.) as a result of (a) a better knowledge of wool, (b) better sales points of wool, and (c) diverting trade from cotton and rayon goods, and (d) selling wool merchandise of better quality than before. Given a comparable increase in sales, at other stores, the total increase in 'sales of wool should amount to between £ 75,000 and £IOO,OOO per -annum.

A further 25 lectures have been booked for April and May. and there appears no doubt that a whole-time member, of the staff can be continually and profitably employed on this work. Later in the year the present lectures will be supplemented with a film strip illustrating many of the points dealt with, thereby giving them even greater interest and effectiveness.

Wool Upholstery for Cars Some, time ago the secretariat made ,a thorough investigation of the use of moquette upholstery by railway and bus companies, the result of which was embodied in a report to the Dominion boards. r ”

Although moquette and pile fabrics have a cotton backing, it is the wool surface accounting for approximately 60 per cent, by weight of the whole which takes the wear, and as shown in the secretariat’s report the experience of the railway and bus companies is strongly in favour of this type of upholstery against leather. For some years a few manufacturers of moquette and pile fabrics have been making strenuous efforts to Introduce their fabrics into the motor car trade, with little, if any. success. Obviously here was a field holding tremendous possibilities for increasing wool consumption if it could be developed, and for the last few months the secretariat has been looking into the matter carefully. . It is a peculiar position that in the United States, which for years has led the world in car design, over 90 per cent, of all private motor cars should be upholstered in wool fabric, whilst in Great Britain a similar proportion is upholstered in leather. In luxury cars such as Rolls-Royce and Daimler the upholstery is in general a wool material, chiefly of the Melton and Bedford Cord type, but this is of course only a small proportion of the total cars in use The secretariat, in its preliminary approaches to the car industry, has found no antagonism to the use of wool in place of leather. Manufacturers quite appreciate the qualities and advantages of wool upholstery, the initial economy in price compared with leather, the absence of waste in cutting, its durability, comfort, etc,, but are not prepared to use it until there is evidence of public demand for it. The only way to create this demand is by publicity directed to the public and not. as has been the practice of a few upholstery manufacturers, directed solely to the car manufacturer and distributor In an attempt therefore to popularise the use of wool upholstery for motor cars, the secretariat has prepared a scheme of publicity and sales promotional work, which calls for the cooperation of manufacturers of upholstery fabrics. ti , , A preliminary meeting with leading upholstery , manufacturers was held, when the secretariat’s scheme , was outlined. There was general approval of it in principle, and since; then during the last month all important manufacturers of wool upholstery -.fabrics have been visited personally by a member of the secretariat, who has discussed with them the scheme for co-operative publicity. A very gratifying response has been obtained, and, although no definite arrangements have been concluded, it may safely be assumed that full support for the scheme will be forthcoming from the industry. In addition, as Indicating the general recognition throughout the Yorkshire trade of the importance of this scheme, the secretariat is very pleased to announce that the Worsted Spinners’ Association. Bradford, has agreed to make a substantial donation to the general fund. This, in itself, is significant . evidence of the confidence of a section of the Yorkshire industry in the Work of the secretariat, and it is hoped that the tangible evidence of the support from this most important section of the textile Industry will be but the first example of similar cooperation in other projects from other sectioris.of the trade.

French and Belgian Committees The formation of committees in France and Belgium has been conceded, and in future the secretariat will centralise its publicity activities through these bodies. At this early stage it is not possible ,to say what financial support “Will be forthcoming from the two committees,- It is significant of their appreciation of the work of the secretariat that they have formed committees to allow of its extension.

The French industry as a whole was enthusiastic at the success of the fashion and . furnishings show which the secretariat arranged in Paris to coincide with the annual meeting of the French Central Wool Committee. This was supported, without cost to the secretariat, by all leading Paris couturiers such as Worth, Molyneux, Lelong, Patou, etc., and attended by some 600 people representative of all French Government departments, British and foreign , legations, the French and foreign press, as well as the French textile industry. A meeting is shortly to be held with the French Propaganda Committee to decide on co-operation work for .the future. Represented on this committee is the French Association of Sheepbreeders, who have already signified their willingness to contribute financially to wool propaganda work in France in conunjction with the secretariat.

International Wool Textile Organlsa-

tion The annual meeting of the International Wool Textile Organisation will this year be held from June 12 to June 17, in Brussels, and the secretariat is arranging a special function to coincide with this important gathering. It will probably take the form of a display of Belgian fashions and fabrics, and the newly-formed Belgian Propaganda Committee will be of material assistance in arranging it. It is hoped that as one of the first steps towards extending the work of the secretariat to France and Belgium, much of the education material now being prepared may be made readily applicable to these countries, and there is no doubt this is a service which will be appreciated just as greatly there as the secretariat has much evidence to show it will be appreciated in the schools of Great Britain.