BOOM IN WOOL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16424, 7 May 1924, Page 7

BOOM IN WOOL.

HOME TRADE MANUFACTURING DIFFICULTIES. (Special Correspondent.) BRADFORD. March 19. There is one important note .set out I'm H. Dawson’s and Co.’s outlook which we have often stressed, namely, the present difficulties confronting Home trade iiKim.U'fncfurers. As one looks at the wool situation, everything appears to be eminently xaltisiiabtory. The word “boom” is,not- too .strong a, tetrm to employ in simply setting forth the way that the raw material lute sold and is still selling, and to all intents and purposes wool is going to move off into niseis’ hands with an alacrity which is significant-. And yet Mr. Harry Dtrwlshn frankly and .oaindfdily points to the difficulties experienced ,to-day by those converting wool into tops, tops into yarns, and yarns into pieces. He says that the difficulties of the situation “beciomo somewhat critical /at- the cloth end o-f the industry. Home manufacturers are finding the position not only extremely difficult, bmt there* seems to he little prospect of ed.uly improvement, especially in the fine .worsted trade* which is largely dependent on European support.” We confirm that to the very Jptiler. ,Tt. is ihe writer’s daily business to* move in and among the mills of the West Riding, and there is -a. continuous wail at the unprofitableness of business, and the utter impossibility pf pa,ssilng wool values on to the ultimate buyers of cloth. The writer durst take any outsider into any half dozen mills he likes -in Bradford or Huddersfield where dress goods and men’s wear worsteds are being made, and ho will let the visitor go where he ,lik«s to put this question:* “What is your experience of obtaining advanced prices for your manufactures?” We veh-ture the opinion that every reply would ,bo that directly higher prices .arc naimed, business is cut off as with a* knife. If there was the slightest case in wool values to-day, then the confidence of the whole trade would be ruined, and there would not be the slightest prospect of enforcing advances for the rest of the season. What is tho *eoho *of all this? It is .to) be seen in mlainufticturers of w'oollen goods keeping busy while makers of worsted fabrics are complaining bitterly at Ihe absence of trade and the impossibility of running looms. That is the one feature which we do mot like about to-day’s wool situation. Across the Atlantic conditions are worse- than they are in the West Riding. In other words high wool values are preventing &• normal development of trade and compelling what business there is to be done- on cheap woollens- which are substituting good, solid worsted cloths. Even- shoddy and mungo have about doubled in price this last-six months, ail] because of the extraordinary demand 1 there is for substitutes. Then the by-products of the woo! trade, such, as noils, wastes, amid the like, have advanced enormously, all because of the great call there is forsomething cheap to substitute for tops and worsted yams in manufacturing cloths. Here is ai fact nvhich has never been known in the wool trade before. Last 'October, good clear 64’s noils were soiling i,ii .Bradford at 30d; they have been sold this week in. Bradford for 47d, which shows a rise ill six' months of 17d per pound. In the case of 64’s tops, they'’were selling- at the beginning of October at 60d, find to-day .we can buy that self same top ,at 70d, a rise at the outside of lOd a pound. .Suicih a state of affairs is beyond comprehension and illustrates what is happening at the manufacturing end of the industry. However, the outlook for wool continues to* be of the best, and *w’e are satisfied that- to-day’s prices are going to last until itlhe world produces a bigger supply of merinos as well as crossbreds.