TREND OF THE WOOL TRADE

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1929, Page 13

TREND OF THE WOOL TRADE

BACK TO PRE-WAR LEVEL.

SIGNS OF BETTER FUTURE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) ' Wellington, December 21. Notwithstanding the. festive season u/ith its gaieties and good-fellowship* the question uppermost in the minds of farmers is the trend of values of farm produce. The value of wool is no longer a matter of speculation. We know now that the wool market is depressed and that prices are down to the prewar level. A casual query put to a woolbroked elicited some information when asked, “What about wool?” He replied with simulated seriousness. “Wool is something that grows on the sheep’s back, which the farmers have clipped this season to give away.” This is an exaggerated way of stating the position, but it shows how the situation is viewed by the brokers and their clients. It is an admission that the market is depressed, and yet there was a time when we were pleased to accept the present prices which arc regarded as very low. “Wool prices are back to the pre-war level, and it is doubtful if it can by any means be forced up to the post-war level. The situation is now being accepted calmly, and some way of improving values is under consideration. Some growers, it is said, contemplate shipping their clips to London for sale there, in the hope that there may be some improvement. It is difficult to see how this can be achieved. The price of greasy fleece wool is governed by the price of tops, and it makes no difference whether the wool is marketed in London, Wellington, Napier or elsewhere. There is obviously nothing to be gained by going past tho local sales and shipping wool to London. . It is stated that the wool committee is considering tho desirability and adadvisability of further limiting the offerings. Curtailment of the limits is very probable, but mere curtailment will not bring about enhanced prices. If the catalogues arc reduced it will mean a win for Bradford, whose representatives are likely to adopt, a waiting game and come in when growers are forced to realise. It was reported recently that there was evidence of “bear” operations at work, but that may be a rumour only. The point that emerges from the general decline in produce values is that readjustments must be made at the producing end to meet the changed economic conditions. There must be a revaluation of farm lands, and the idea that two-sheep country is worth £25 per acre must be abandoned. We have not deflated as they have been obliged to do in Europe, and the deflation must begin now. The values of shares have declined because they have been overvalued, and land values must be readjusted for the same reason. \ Were the. feminine section of the world wearing as much wool as they did years ago the sheep’s staple would be in a better selling position than it is to-day. France would be especially busy turning out women’s dress goods, and all the mills engaged in producing women’s fabrics would be busily employed. Hosiery manufacturers would be busily employed on the cashmere products made from wool which were in vogue in the past. Silk and artificial silk, however, have captured feminine fancy to the detriment of wool. Some hope for the revival of woolmade goods by women is raised by the remarks of Lady Victor Paget, reported in the Textile Argus, Bradford. She stated: “Winter woollens are being worn in the course of fashion, while silks of

traditional grandeur take back-stage ■" place beneath artistic tweeds and worsteds. Even those much-ridiculed warm petticoats of red worn by our greataunts are brought to the surface in the guise of loosely-woven materials as soft and supple as velvet. Woollens are hixuruiating in an era of autocracy. They have usurped to so-called snobbery of silk, and are on equality with the finest fabrics. Tweeds, worsteds, homespuns and cheviots are made to the slim ruling and finished so superficially that they do not irritate the arms or neck.” Such remarks from a fashion authority are encouraging. If the “classes” set fashion’s standard of wearing woollen fabrics it is probably only a matter of time until the masses follow suit. It is no doubt the wide general use of silk and its cheaper but quite presentable substitute, artificial silk, which has swung select fashionable favour again towards wool. The same result has latterly been seen with the fur coat in America and elsewhere. The rabbitskin coat, made up to represent a varity of more expensi ; furs, has proved the undoing of that fashion. Fur became too popular and the swing towards the woollen coat has set in. There arc many who believe that wool will come into its own again, and it looks very much like it-