AN INJUSTICE TO THE DISTRICT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14608, 18 May 1918, Page 3

AN INJUSTICE TO THE DISTRICT

* 4 By the shipment of wool from Gisborne for scouring purposes at Napier, this distinct has entailed a loss of no less than £5000." So Mr. F. J. Lysnar, chairman of directors of the East Coast Fellmongery Company stated to a Herald representative to-day m referring to yestei'day's deputation of protest to the Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald. Apart from that it has cost the Imperial authorities £900 to £900 m unnecessary transit expenses, and if the farmers of the district only knew it, that meant nearly £6000 that would come, not out of the coffers of the Government, but out of the pockets x of the producers themselves. Yesterday's deputation, he explained', was not the first protest his company had raised against the unfair policy of shipping the wool away. The 208 bales recently allocated to them had been the result of previous representations to the Hon. Mr Mac Donald. The position was this : His company, at the instigation of the Department's officials, had just installed new plant to the value of £4500, and was made capable of handling 150 bales a week irrespective of the weather. Further inquiries yesterday disclosed the fact that the figures quoted by Mr. EJlery were correct, and there were only 267 bales remaining m the stores m Gisborne unallocated, and part of these was actually being shipped yesterday. Apart from the skins for treatment (of which his firm could handle 500 a day), the wool m hand would be cut out m a fortnight, and there would be no further allocation until some time m June. Seeing that the company employed 30 men, not including carriers, etc., the closing down of the works m consequence of the shipping away of the wool was most unjust. Had the wool been required to be scoured and shipped away as quickly as ]>ossible, he would not have complained, but as a matter of fact, there was no urgency, as the scoured wool was only being stored. Asked as to the position of the Coast wool shipped from Tokomaru Bay, Mr. Lysnar said the scouring works there had been closed down, and this wool was bemc shipped to Auckland and Napier. The whole matter, he said, was a gross injustice to the commercial interests of the district. The Hon. W. D. 8. Mac Donald informed a Herald representative to-day that he had 1 received a. wire from tile Hon. Mr. Guthrie that he would keep • the local works going reasonably with the season's wool from sales and crutchings, as promised Mr. Mac Donald. Ho was asking the Woolbrokers' Association at the annual meeting at Wellington on May 28, and suggested that the Gisl>orne Woolbrokers' Association should send a delegate.