AUSTRALIAN WOOL EXPORT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 16

AUSTRALIAN WOOL EXPORT

BOUNTY SCHEME REJECTED. REGULATION OF SUPPLIES. Sydney, Nov. 25. The opinion that the wool industry has reached its lowest level of depression is expressed in the report of the Commonwealth Wool Inquiry Committee, which is now available. The committee describes the present gap between costs and sale prices as “unbridgeable.” Rejecting all proposals for . a loan or bounty to the growers, it suggests that the Woolgrowers’ Council should establish a Commonwealth Wool Executive; and that, to regulate the supply of wool for the market, the Federal Government should take control and prohibit the export of wool at the request of this executive. It approves tentatively of a high exchange ■ rate, and suggests the lowering of interest rates, land tax and tariffs and railway freights, in the interests of the primary producer. Opinions differ widely as to the value of the report. The president of the Graziers’ Association, Mr. Toul, described it as “comprehensive, clear-cut and constructive,” and said he -thought , “it should appeal strongly to the majority of the 90,000 woolgrowers in Australia.” On the other hand, some prominent pastoralists asserted that it was “an absolute failure,” apparently because it does not suggest an immediate and practicable cure for all their woes. One critic condemned the report in very emphatic terms, on the ground that it was permeated by the “selfishness” of the primary producer, who thought only of his own interests and ignored the losses and sufferings that the rest of the community had had to endure. Several critics have said the man on the land was apparently still supposed to assume that the inflated value at which his land was purchased and on which his financial arrangements were made was never to be written down.

An interesting appendix to the- report is the series of comments offered by Mr. Grayndler, M.L.C., who is general secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, and was a member of the committee. He states that the committee almost ly ignored the question of land values and that there was proof that overcapitalisation, high brokerage and enormous interest charges were largely responsible for the heavy cost of production, -while a “combine" of wool buyers strangles competition” and forces prices down.

A great deal of caution will need to be exercised in adopting some of these proposals—especially the scheme for market control, but the great trouble is that the primary producers are impatient of the delay. The Federal Government has voted a £2,000,000 subsidy for the assistance of the wheat industry, and of this sum Western Australia is to receive £400,000. But the wheatgrowers of that State are not satisfied and they are organising a virtual “strike” to hold up the delivery of grain, on the ground that the measure, of relief offered is inadequate. ,