WOOL RESEARCH

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 29

WOOL RESEARCH

OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE.

NEW ZEALAND REPRESENTED.

LONDON, September 22.

Dr Marsden and Mr Sidney are representing New Zealand at the Wool Research Conference, which opened at the Imperial Institute. Mr J. H. Thomas (Dominion Secretary), in his inaugural address, said that nothing disturbed 'one more than to hear folks talk as if the country were down and out. “We are having a rough passage just now, but so is every country in the world.” He said he was confident that the old spirit of grit and determination would pull them through, as it had done in the past.

The conference will continue at Leeds and Bradford on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and at Edinburgh on Friday.

PRODUCER AND MANUFACTURER.

INSUFFICIENT CONTACT.

LONDON, September 23.

A paper was read at the wool research Conference by Mr A. C. Rivett, of Australia, who said that no attempt was made in Australia to touch the manufacturing side of the industry. “ That belongs to Britain,” he said, “ but I am convinced that an appropriate division of the work is desirable.” Australia and South Africa were shouldering the responsibility of production and Britain of manufacturing. Dr Marsden (New Zealand) regretted that there was insufficient contact between the producer and the manufacturer, and a lamentable lack of information in regard to the attributes of wool that were desirable from the manufacturers’ point of view and whether it was desirable to develop pedigree types of sheep suitable to the present predominant Romney and Corriedale types. With New Zealand’s relatively uniform climate wool might ultimately be purchased on a fairly definitive specification, thus stabilising the industry. Mr Du Toit (South Africa) said that the practice of sending their students to Australia had a marked influence on the standard of South African wool, resulting in the Government creating a number of scholarships for research. •