REGAINING POPULARITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17233, 12 April 1930, Page 4

REGAINING POPULARITY

WOOL AND COMPETITION BRITAIN’S DECREASED USAGE That wool is coming into its own again and that, artificial silk mills are adjusting their production to meet the demand were opinions expressed by Air. W. Hunter, cx-Presidcut of the British Wool Federation, in a lecture on “fjoine Reflections on Wool and Its Uses,” delivered before the Bradford Textile (Society. Seeing that the British Empire comprises only one-tenth of the population of the wool-consuming nations, ho said, it was remarkable that Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, and Great Britain should produce 5,000.000 bales of wool — or one half the world's total production —per annum. The amount retained for consumption iu Britain last year was 1,338,000 bales as compared with 1,497.000 bales in 1913. This reduction was more serious than appeared at first because, considered in conjunction with the great increase which lias taken place in the exports.of Australian, New Zealand and Cape wools between 1923 and 1928 (amounting to 1,700,000 bales), it showed whence Britain's competitors had drawn their wool, and one asked the question: “Why has not the wool textile industry of this country been able to absorb its due proportion of this amazing increase? Considering that this enormous increase in the wool supplies from the Dominions alone has been absorbed in the main by the wool textile industries of Europe and Japan, said Mr. Hunter, no effort should be spared to eradicate the cause and put the wool textile industry of Great Britain in the pre-eminent position if occupied before the war, and has still a right to occupy. lit spite of the prejudice against wool, resulting from the high tariff' now imposed on all imports. America consumed about sjib. of wool per head of the population, and Air. limiter thought it was justifiable to assume that that* figure was the minimum quantity which the wool-consuming public use. though it would probably he found to he more. A significant fact in regard to wool production and consumption was that while there are 689 million sheep in the world the population wearing wool fabrics is about 637 million people. Within a. small decimal point, therefore, there was one sheep per head of the wool consuming population, and this was sufficient to provide the people with the food and warm clothing they require in the varying climates of the world. Regarding the substitution of wool by artificial silk, Air. Hunter pointed out that the consumption of wool in the world is the equivalent of 61b. per head of the wool-using community, whereas the figure in respect of artificial silk is equal to about half-a-pound only. The artificial silk mills, he added, are now adjusting their production to the, demand, and it would appear that, for the time being at any rale, Hie outlook for the industry is not too promising. Wool was coming into its own again after being under a cloud for a. few years.