SUBSIDY ON WOOL SOUGHT

Southland Times, Issue 23828, 27 May 1939, Page 18

SUBSIDY ON WOOL SOUGHT

BRISBANE “ALTERNATIVE TO BANKRUPTCY” A motion recommending that, because of the apparent impossibility of reducing production costs, there should be a subsidy on wool sufficient to allow a margin of profit to the grower, was agreed to at the 49th annual meeting of the Council of the United Graziers Association at Brisbane recently. The motion stated that this step was necessary in the absence of any sign of substantial increase in wool prices. It was the only apparent alternative to the bankruptcy of the great majority of wool growers. The association was asked to request the Graziers’ Federal Council to recommend the Australian Wool Growers’ Council to approach the Commonwealth Government about a subsidy. The retiring president, Mr Norman Bourke, said that he considered it fundamentally wrong to subsidize established industries. It could not be denied, however, that the financial position of many wool growers in the Commonwealth was such that they might feel justified in asking for a slice of the “subsidy cake,” of which so many industries were getting a cut.

Bankruptcy prices that had ruled for many months for wool urgently called for some remedy. This might be partly found in the regulation of supplies on the marker