WORLD WOOL OUTLOOK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18257, 28 November 1933, Page 10

WORLD WOOL OUTLOOK

UNSATISFIED DEMAND GERMAN SPINNER’S VIEWS SCOPE FOR DEVELOPMENT “If I were a New Zealand farmer 1 should double my sheep,” said Mr. Alfred Kummerle, of the Ivummerle spinning mills, Brandenburg, Germany, who is visiting Auckland. “There is no doubt that business is improving and that more wool is wanted in Europe and nearly all over the world. Mr. Kummerle has spent the past live weeks in touring the sheep farming districts of both the North and South Island by motor car. Ho intends to tour Australia t-o study wool production there as in New Zealand, and will visit the East before returning to Germany. “You can be sure of continued high prices,” he continued. “At the same time, I do not like very sudden rises; there is always the risk of a relapse On the whole, I think that prices will settle down somewhere about pre-war level, but not above it.” Germany was likely to require fully as much wool this season as last, Mr. Kummerle said, but if prices went too high she would have to buy less, for the reason that expenditure on imports was restricted in order to sustain the mark, which had only a 20 per cent, gold backing. Wool, as a raw material was naturally in a favored position, but the restriction might have some clfect on purchases. THE WOOLLEN BROWN SHIRT

In his own business, which was in knitting yarns, trade was gopd because in hard times women were inclined to buy fewer made-up garments and to knit more themselves. His linn was a fairly large consumer of New Zealand wools, particularly from the South Island. . . “I do not believe that the political changes in Germany are having any effect on trade,” lie said, in reply to a question, “except that the thousands of Nazi uniforms call for a great deal _ol extra wool. Hitherto the brown shirt has been mostly of cotton, but 1 believe that woollen materials will be used more and more. Even the cotton shirt, with no coat over it, calls for heavier underwear in cold weather.”

Generally speaking, economic depression tended to give wool an advantage over its new rival, artificial silk, woollen goods being on the whole cheaper for the amount of warmth they provided. It seemed likely that the depression of American currency would lead to a greater demand for wool in that country, since there was a greater inducement to the consumer to put his money into goods. In the past, for some reason, depression had tended to benefit the American textile trade. However, it was difficult, to forecast the effects of President Roosevelt’s monetary policies. A MAINSTAY EUR NEW ZEALAND

The outlook for increased wool consumption in the East was promising and on the whole there seemed little likeliliood of world over-production for a con siderable time.

Speaking of New Zealand wool-grow mg, Mr. Kummerle said there seemed to be a good deal of scope for pasture development, hut he realised that the treatment of large areas by top-dressing would be very expensive, especially to landholders who carried heavy mortgages and were just emerging from a period of very low prices. He was struck by the very large areas of land still under fern in the North Island. After seeing Taranaki he was driven to wonder whether that province would not see a considerable turnover from dairying to intensive sheep-raising before very many years. Speaking as an outsider, he would hazard the opinion that New Zealand might find wool her mainstay if the world-wide over-production of dairyproduce became more acute. Personally, Mr. Kummerle had no complaint to make of the quality of New Zealand wool but lie commended the growers’ scheme for levying upon themselves for systematic research into problems affecting the industry.