WOOLLEN MILLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3655, 1 April 1924, Page 31

WOOLLEN MILLS.

IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. (From Odb Own Coe.respondf.nt.) SYDNEY, March 20. With many indications of popular gratification the foundation stone of the first woollen mill to be erected in Western Australia was laid by the Premier, Sir James Mitchell, at Albany last week. The move is hailed as the first definite move in the direction of founding manufacturing industries in the west, which hitherto has depended, except in small matters, upon the eastern States and oversea factories. Last year Western Australia imported from the eastern States of the commonwealth manufactures to the value of £5,500,000, and this has for years been a source of controversy, successive political parties promising, to facilitate and assist the establishment of home industries. It has to he remembered, of course, that between two and three thousand miles of sea carriage from the eastern ports adds much to the cost of the goods when delivered in the west, so that motives of economy have much to do with the agitation. It is natural that a start should be made with the woollen industry, because Western Australia not only produces nearly £3,000,000 worth of wool in a year, but claims that some of it is the best in Australia. Although not directly associated with the movement in the eastern States under which woollen mills are about to be erected at various country towns, the same method of flotation by appealing to local patriotism as well as to the business instincts for financial backing for the venture hais been adopted. Citizens’ committees were formed to hold meetings and appeal for support, and, as one speaker at the ceremony said at the foundation laying ceremony, could the mills have been built by eloquence they would have been erected and working months ago. However, the response, though slow was sure, and to-day, although tile ceremony was nominally that of laying the foundation stone, the huge concrete walls are actually half up. The building itself is costing about' £40,000, and the machinery is costing £50,000, apart from the power-house. The manager, Mr Chambers, who has had English and New Zealand experience, sees scope in Western Australia for six such mills, and the extension of the enterprise will depend upon the success of the parent mill. The Premier welcomed the enterprise as an indication that Western Australia would at length be able to reap Some benefit from the high protective tariff. “Hitherto,’ he remarked, “protection has been a deadly thing for Western Aiustralia, because we hardly manufacture at all. It has been a wonderfully fine thing for Alelbourne and Sydney, hut a tremendous burden for us. Hitherto it has been simply pay, pay, pay to the eastern Staites.