DISPOSAL OF WOOL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17062, 21 September 1929, Page 6

DISPOSAL OF WOOL

SALES ALL YEAR ROUND MR. F. S. BOWEN’S PROPOSALS Returning once again to the question of the marketing of wool, Mr. F. 8. Bowen, chairman of the Poverty Bay provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, to-day stated that this was the most important problem to he faced by the farmers of Now Zealand.

Most of tile reports oil whiq.li the expectations of New Zealand farmers depended, said Mr. Bowen, emanated from Bradford, but lie had been able to discover that Bradford actually took less than half the wool clip of Australia. He quoted from a schedule of figures indicating that 800,000 odd hales of wool went to Bradford and over 1,000,000 bales more, namely 1,817,805, to the Continent. Tho

majority of the firms operating in the wool market were large, and wealthy concerns, the smaller men having been thrust out. They had had the same thing in the meat trade, the meat getting into the hands of the big firms, to fho exclusion of the small competitors. He held that they should hold wool sales over the whole year, instead of only about, four months. ‘ With the short, season as at present, the Dominion was simply throwing the wool at the buyers. If they could hold wool sales over the whole 12 months they wou(d get 3d or Oil per pound more than they were securing at pro sent. lie proposed that the union should write direr) to tine Prom: i suggesting that the seies should Inheld over the whole year, instead «u within a few months. Mr. J. C. Field held that 1 hey ,Imd to advertise wool to increase its pop a larity. The chairman declared that this scheme would he the best advertisement that wool could receive. “If the catalogues of sales were kept down to 60,000 or 70,000 bales, they would have plenty of interest in it. At the suggestion of the chairman, he was authorised to write to the Prime Minister, setting forth his ideas on tlio disposal of the New Zealand clip. He intimated that he would circularise the letter to all provincial executives in the Dominion, and also to advise his action to the other members of the special committee set up by the New Zealand Farmers’ Union conference at Wellington recently.