OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 13

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

IMPORTERS AND TOPMAKERS DOING BETTER THAN SPINNERS AND MANUFACTURERS. BRADFORD, January 12. Attention is now chiefly directed ___ to news received from Australia and New Zealand about the auctions there. There is something inspiring about a maintenance of values- and any indications of trade being decently good. One would have liked very much to see more looms running in the West Riding, but we must be thankful for small mercies, and. considering the whole position, we think conditions are satisfactory. We should have liked things better if there had been a greater response in the orders placed for yarns and piece goods among spinners and manufacturers, but whether looms are all run or not the raw material continues to meet with active competition. Next week the first series of London sales for this year will commence. It seems only a short time since the last series finished, and it would have done no harm if we could have had the approaching series to commence a week later. However, it is the usual thing for the first two series to come along very quickly, this being due to banks and other financial institutions wanting to convert colonial clips into cash as soon as possible. SCOTTISH MANUFACTURERS BUSY. According to all accounts, Scottish manufacturers of fancy woollens are very busy, and they regard the outlook for 1928 as being above the average. They say that their whole output for the next two months has been sold, and think that with the increase in the popularity of their woollen goods prospects for 1928 have seldom been better. There is no doubt that Cheviots, homespuns, and Saxony tweeds are popular everywhere, but what I think is even more in favour of these goods is the fact that the public know that when they see the stamp of the Scottish Manufacturers’ Association they are getting what they pay for. South of Scotland manufacturers guarantee all goods carrying their stamp to be made from 'virgin wool. The cloths do not contain an admixture of mungo and shoddy. We have always admired the enterprise of the average Scottish manufacturer. He seems to say: “Let those who will turn to the use of inferior raw materials for the production of cheap cloths, I am out for producing the best, and nothing will satisfy me but putting before consumers that which I know will giv e satisfaction.” South of Scotland manufacturers have done better through the years of slump than their competitors here in the West Riding, and, after all. the retail price of a good suit is not much more than that of a poor one. The Scottish manufacturers never

did a finer thing than when they formed themselves into an association and began to advertise their goods to the consuming public of the world, guaranteeing them to be the best that could be made. THE TRADITIONAL MJERINo. In calling merino cloths Saxonies Scottish manufacturers have kept alive a name originally applied to merino wool which came from Saxony, in Germany. It is well within the scope of reasonable sentiment that this ancient name has been preserved. One hundred years ago wool from the merino breed of sheep was known as Saxony, and that name has only been dropped by growers and buyers in the colonial wool industry during the past 50 to 60 years. In his boyhood days the writer used to hear woolmen speak of Saxony merinos, but no one to-day employs that term, the importation of Saxony merino rams into Australia and South Africa having ceased. It would be interesting to know when the last Saxony stud sheep were imported into Australia, but we think it would be in

the early ’seventies. They .were largely introduced with the intention of imparting quality to the then existing Australian merino sheep. Some Saxonymerino wool samples shorn in the early ’seventies in Australia, but which are now in the writer’s possession, show a qualitywell over 100’s. At that time merino wool could not be grown. too fine in Australia, but fashion has now swung to the other extreme. At the risk of being wearisome on a subject which colonial growers may regard as having been already sufficiently emphasised, one will suggest that the traditions of the wool industry have some claim upon them in respect of quality. The Australian pastoral industry- was founded on the merino, and, whilst we cannot ignore that wool is grown for profit and not simply for pleasure, we think that growers generally may well recognise the means by which their industry has attained its present standing. Commercial progress cannot be made without reasonable recognition of the founda-' tions laid in the past. New Zealand pastoralists have carved out a course of their own which has brought profit to themselves and contributed a share in another direction to the development of the jvool manufacturing industry, but one cannot look forward with" any pleasure to even the remote possibility of such a development taking place on a.large scale in Australia. It is regrettable that many Australian pastoralists do not seem to care- how coarse theirs so-called merino Wool becomes, and it will be well for them tq remember the progress that is being made in merino, wool production in South

Africa. country- has potential competitive possibilities which Australia should not ignore. A PARALLEL BETWEEN COTTON AND WOOL. The relationship between - the wool manufacturing industry in the West Riding of Yorkshire and the cotton industry of Lancashire is so close that some comments upon the latter will not be out of place in this column. Big quantities of cotton goods come into Bradford every- week to be dyed, and big weights of cotton yarn are also used on Bradford looms. The point at which the relationship referred to is at the moment being most emphasised is the financial situation. Much interest has been aroused in Bradford by (he purchasing of a big mill by a German firm for the manufacture of artificial silk goods. This mill has never been prosperous, having had a chequered career, and the fact that it has been turned over for the manufacture of silk does not speak well for the prosperity of the wool industry. At the same time, an isolated case of this kind cannot be accepted as a reliable guide to the state of the whole trade, though it certainly bespeaks the disastrous consequences of over-capitalisation. Many woollen mills in this district are serfc ously handicapped in this respect. Firms could be named which shortly after the war were formed into limited liabilitycompanies, but which have not paid a single penny- dividend. They- have struggled along as well as they could, apparently having been content to find work for their employees. A similar state of affairs has prevailed in Lancashire, only the firms which have been under very- careful control havin'been able to carry- on at all satisfactorily. About two . years ago a great display was made in both the Lancashire and Yorkshire press about a little cotton mill which never ceased working. It now transpires, however, that even this concern has been working almost entirely to stock and has only just cleared out big weights ot goods made before the war. this bavinbeen accomplished by offering them at very reasonable prices. By this means considerable space has been made in the warehouse for the goods which are now coming from the looms, and the firm will be busy tor several months. Other big firms are in a much more parlous position. One or two known to the writer are closing down entirely, and others are undergoing a very drastic revision of capital, having been put under new management. Some of the big mills have made practically no progress since the war the machinery being entirely out of date and quite inadequate to offer goods at competitive prices. Exactly the same principle is operative in the woollen and "■orsted industries, and only- those firms i ’ e vep Y \ lei F machinery up to date and their capital within reasonable dimensions are in anything like a real sound financial position.