NEW ZEALAND WOOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 16

NEW ZEALAND WOOL.

THE ROMNEY CROSS. Something which will cause more chan usual discussion has been thrown amongst New Zealand pastoralists by a recent pronouncement by Mr F. A. Akroyd, a leading member of the wool trade and president of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, to the effect that the use of the Romney ram m New Zealand is going great, harm to the wool clip of the dominion. To this statement Mr Alfred Matthews, president of the New Zealand Romney Marsh Sheepbreeders’ Association, makes a spirited reply, which he has just posted Home. . Mr Akroyd has lately touched publicly in England on two questions of much interest to the wool trade —namely, sheepbreeding and the high cost of wool. He contends (says the Dominion) that while the use of the Romney ram may help the New Zealand wool-grower to maintain the weight of the fleece, it produces a wool that is most undesirable from the user’s standpoint—a wool in which you may find four or five qualities of fibre in one staple, or in which you may find staple made up of fibres, coarse and wiry, at the base and diminishing gradually by several qualities. In the yarn, Mr Akroyd says, these coarser fibres stand out, and will not ’‘bed in with the rest. He also declares that the Romney cross is prolific in what is known as dead fibres, and these, lacking the absorptive power of the rest, will not take the dye. On the occasion of the visit to Bradford of the colonial Premiers, Mr Masfey paid a brief visit to Mr Akroyd at his home at Birstwith Hall, and that gentleman (states the \\ 00l Record) by means of specimen fleeces demonstrated his point to the New Zealand Premier. Mr Akroyd, in an inerview with a represcentative of the Wool Record, amplified his views on the subject of New Zealand sheep-breeding. The interviewer ventured the suggestion that- the Romney Marsh sire bad been used in New Zealand more than any other for the past 20 yars. and that more flocks had been built up on a Romney foundation than ©n all tile other types put together. “I was not aware of ihat.” replied Mr Akroyd, ‘ but I am aware that it is doing a tremendous amount of harm.” ‘‘But is it not strange,” observed the interviewer, ‘‘that New Zealand p-istoral-ists have been breeding on wrong lines all these years, and that no complaints have ever been heard?” I do not accept the suggestion,” replied Mr Akroyd, “that the Romney has been the foundation of the New Zealand flock for 20 years. It may have been used for that period, hut the f.incolns and the ■Eeieester* were the basis of the breeding

of nearly all New Zealand flocks. In any case, it takes time for the blood really to show itself. You have no better instance of that than the cross between the Border Leicesters and the Oxford Downs, a very common cross in England. For the first year no material harm shows itself, but later it becomes ruinous. “I assure you it is not the fact that there have been no complaints. I guarantee there is not a single wool merchant in the city who will not supportme in the contention that there has been a falling-off in the quality of New Zealand wool during the last five years or so “If you suggest that- we have not hitherto been very vocal on the subject, I might point out that we have never before had the same opportunity of bringing the matter to the notice of the colonial Premiers. Moreover, the effect of the breeding has not before shown itself with such prominence as it has done latterly. The breeding defects of which we complain are now getting so intermixed with the various hocks that you can hardly get away trom them, and it is that circumstance which is causing the alarm.” “Of course, said the interviewer, Tixew Zealand pastoralists have all the time been out to produce a dual-purpose sheep, their objects being a good carcase for the freezing establishments and o good, useful, all-round commercial fleece as well.” air Akroyd agreed, and said that his advocacy of the Wensleydale sire was on two grounds. In the first place, it had an excellent fleece; in the second, you could not fatten it to too great a depth, and so the delicacy of the mutton was retained. Lincolns and Leicesters would carry an enormous amount of fat, which was wasteful and tended to grossness, whereas Wensleydales could only put on a limited amount of fat, and that tended to refinement. Mr Akroyd’s attention was drawm to the fact tnat the saleroom verdict in London last series seemed to approve of the general action of pastoralists, seeing that leading clips from the Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay wool-growing districts, where Bomney blood had been extensively used, sold at from 24d to 30d per lb in the grease. My contention is,” replied Mr Akroyd, “that the Hawkes’ Bay is being ruined by me Romney. As a rule the Romney tends to lightness, and high yield of fleece with a minimum amount of grease, and this fact always helps prices. But the Hawke’s Bay district wools are not a patch on what they were 25 years ago. They are not anything like so good.” The interviewer said he understood that Wensleydale rams had been tried for crossing purposes by the New Zealand farmers, but had made no headway because the Romney cross had proved the better both in the weight of wool produced and the earlier maturing of the lambs and fullgrown sheep. Mr Akroyd was not prepared to agree. There was, he said, nothing in the point about the earlier maturing of lambs. A Wensleydale lamb would be fit to kill in two months from birth. Asked what other breeds he would suggest in place of the Romney, Mr Akroyd said he had already suggested the Wensleydale, He suggested also the Corriedale. a breed evolved in New Zealand, which had a beautiful fleece. There was also a sheep in Nottinghamshire which produced the Nottingham wethers. It was altogether sunerior to the Romney. He did not agree with the suggestion that in some districts in New Zealand the Romney was better suited to the climate conditions than any other British breed of sheep. The districts in which they were using the Romney would carry any class of sheep. The New Zealand climate was one of the finest climates in the world. As to tile point that coarse crossbred wool had fared the worst in the days of I be slump, and that coarse crossbred wool never did bring the same prices as medium crossbred, Mr Akroyd and his reply was that it was entirely a matter of fashion. ROMNEY BREEDERS’ REPLY. Mr Alfred Matthews, president of the New Zealand Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders’ Association, has forwarded the following reply to Mr Ackroyd, to the Wool Record :—- Some time ago when the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand, was in England, he paid a visit to Bradford, and incidentally came in contact with Mr F. A. Akroyd, a gentleman with large interests in the woollen trade, as well as being a breeder of Wensleydale sheep. Mr Akroyd has been reported as having made a sweeping statement with regard to the bad effects on the New Zealand wool clip caused by the use of the Romney Marsh ram. He has made a further reference to this matter in the Wool Record of March 6, a paper which is published in Bradford. We will admit that Mr Akroyd is an ex pert on wool and the manufacturing trade, but he has proved by his statements that he knows very little, if anything, aboijf the growing end, more especially in New Zealand. His statements about the New Zealand Romneys are not founded on fact, and are not only misleading, but are damaging. The foremost, breeders of Romney Marsh sheep in New Zealand are well aware of the value to the manufacturer of a good quality, soft handling wool, with crimp, lustre, and length of staple, containing no kernps or dead fibres, and the whole fleece even in length and quality Wp claim, without fear of contradiction, that they have succeeded in producing flocks of purebred Romney Marsh sheep growing wool of the above character, and this has been done by selection, and not by any crossing with another breed. There are many large flocks of sheep bred from rams carrying wool of the above type, on which brokers’ reports and the prices realised are everything- one could wish for. The wools of this class are termed “American wools” by the New Zealand brokers, because the Americans purchase them largely and usually outbid English buyers. Mr O. M. Perry spent a month in Mr Akroyd’s factory learning wool classing, and he states that “the Romney breed does not get credit there for producing Leicester-Merino or probably high-, class wools, but they are classed as Romney-Marino, the pure Romney not getting credit for growing such wools.” The following statement made by Professor Cossar Ewart, the noted authority on sheep-breeding, when recently in New Zealand, may be quoted:—“The only other breed I went specially to see was the Romneys, and it seems to me that partly by changed surroundings and partly by very careful breeding, the coat of the •Romney has been immensely improved, and the wool is much finer than is the case with English Romney sheep. The wool I examined was purer, that is as a wool

fibre, but was comparatively coarse. Again, the fibres of wool I-have seen this time are dstinctly finer than the fibres of wool taken from slieep four or five vears ago; that indicates that by selection—apart altogether from other considerations—the Romney is being improved. 1 thing (.he improvement has consisted in getting rid of any trace of the Lincoln, which undoubtedly it had some few years ago. The Romney wool is better than it was some years ago—a resuit that has been arrived at not by crossing, but by selection.'' Had Mr Akroyd taken up the attitude that there was a greater proportion of second-class wool coining Irorn New Zealand than previously, and not tried to give the reasons why, and how to remedy it, he would have been on much sounder lines. It has been recognised by wool men in New Zealand that there is more secondclass wool being produced than should be. One of the causes of this no doubt, was the vulution system under the commandeer, when there was such a small margin between high and low grade wools that breeders became careless about quality, and bred solely for weight and nuantity. Romneys were first imported into New Zealand over 70 years ago, and on account of their hardihood and suitability tor general purposes, have now become the most popular breed, as the enormous increase in numbers, as compared with all other breeds, proves. New Zealand is a young country, and the sneep farmers are continuously on the increase, and this fact does not tend towards improvement in the wool clip, as many of the new breeders have no knowledge of what constitutes good wool. Mr Akroyd has strongly recommended the use of Wensleydale sheep, and here again he proves his ignorance of New Zealand conditions, as they are too thin and open in the wool to stand the rainfall of this country, in which the Romney thrives, and further, they are too leggv for the New Zealand frozen meat trade. The Lincoln shee.p, which were largely used at one time herej a somewhat similar breegi to the Wensleydale. has been superseded by the Romney, chiev owing to climatic conditions and because of the latter’s suitability for nearly all classes of country.