IMPURITIES IN WOOL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13463, 9 December 1907, Page 7

IMPURITIES IN WOOL.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST WOOLPACKS

On Friday w published a cablegram from London stilting that ab a meeting-of the committee. appointed to consider the question of vegetable fibre in wool, it was announced that replies from the Calcutta bale makers were unsatisfactory. A subcommittee was appointed to consider ihe w.hoie question of packs, includiag He all-wool pack and the American -process of rendering jute harmless. In connection with this, the article from the "Yorkshire Daily Observer" of September 12tli last ifo" whii-h we are indebted to the Tim-i.ni branch of the National Mortgage and Agency Company), will be read Avith iritn-efti :

The presence of vegetable nut toy in wool has for so long engaged the iii-ientic.'-. of the Bradford Chamber of Joinnier; e that the greatest interest ; ( t!acli<'d io :in. visit to the city yesterday, at :hc invitation of the Chamber, of a nuui'.er of Australian and' New Zealand gr.-.weri and packers and London wool, importers and brokers, who were given an opj.i.nun.-ry of seeing for themselves ihe mi.-ch;ef caused by vegetable fibres and other f:-r eign- matter, in the raw material. '"Laler the guests met members of the Chamber in conference "on the question Quite a large company assembled at the offices of the Chamber, and were received by the president (Colonel H. A. Foster). The committeei .which/ had in hand the question of vegetable matter in wool was represented by Mr J. PL Fawcett, Mr A. H. lilingworth, Mr. W. A. Whitehead, Mr A. R. Byks, Mr John Emsley, Mr J. , H. McEwan, Mr J. R. Raper, Mr J. H. Robinson, Mr Henry Ayrton, Mr H. Dawson,, and Dr. Anspacli (of the Bradford Dyers'. Association, Limited) wilh Mr P. Anderson, secretary of the Chamber. Mr H. Jowett, Mr H. Sutcliffe Smith,-and Colonel ii. Hoffman were also present. The colonial -visitors were. Mr W. ActonAdams (Canterbury, New Zealand), Mr Herbert Acton-Adams. (Tipapa, Canterbury, New Zealand, Mr C. W. Little (Coreena Sta'ion), Mr S. R. Livingstonebury, New Zealand), 7 Mr C. W. Little (Melbourne), Mr Duncan Cameron (Christchurch, New Zealand), Mr Eustace Hill (Australia), Mr Otway R. Falkiner (New Zealand), Mr P. D. Perqival (Queensland),' Mr James Sharps (Geraldston, South Australia), Mr T. P. Knox (Delgety and Co., Limited, New" South Wales), Mr John C. Xhierens (Australia), Captain Charles. Wood (New Zealand), Mr A. F. Kennedy (Poverty Bay, New Zealand), and Mr J. J. Falconer (Melbourne). -The London importers and brokers present or represented were Mr Chailes Balme, Mr G. B. Du. Croz, Mr D. S. -Murray (Sanderson, Murray and Co.), Mr William Henderson, Mr W. B. Daniels, Messrs Buxton, Ronald, and Cb., Messrs Jacomb, Son and Co., the Manager, Bank o£ .Victoria,. Mr A; Taylor, Mr Percy Arnold 1 , Mr Frank B. Windeler, Mr Strachan Clarke, Mr W. P. Beviveaux, Mr J. G.. Suhr, Mr John Hampso.i, Mr Frank Hyne, Mr C. A. 'Franklin,i'sx-d Air. Ernest W. Thomas.. : The President extended to rthe. visitors a cordial welcome'to "the'city.' Unfortunately, he lemarked, he had not the -support of the new. Lord' Mayor, but his, : L'ordshrj; had.written a letter expressing his regrets and giving good reasons for his absence.

The excellent responce to the. invitations, issued by the Chamber was a very-great compliment, for that.Was a day on whk-H a : great many people might have excuses: for not coming. He need only mention the words St. Leger (laughter). However,' the subject that they were..met to consider was one the importance of which they could not over-estimate. VISIT TO MESSRS. HOLDEN'S MILLS.Af;er the reception by the President the company were taken in a dozen carriages to.the works of Mecers. Isaac Holdten anl Sons. gHerethey were; shown by-Mr J. : B. Baper a large number of packs of .wool,; the 'Contents of'which, were turned out, and on the surface of which could be Wen adhering'innumerable small fibres of jute; or. hemp,: from the packing : material: . It was explained that these vegetable fibresminute, almost, as hairs—were a.eource of infinite trouble, their complete extrac-

tibn baffling even, the best wool-combers. The result was that the wool went through all its processes with some of these fibres in it, and not until the piece came to be dyed was ■•their. presence ; detected." Then, as vegetable fibres -will, not take a. wool dye,': they appeared as tiny white streams on the 5 surface of the piece. The visitors evinced the keenest interest-in the prob kin ; and fell, readily to discussing ■'he suggestions put forward for preventing the difficulty' by improved methods of packing. Re-entering the carriages ■ the party were taken ;to the warehouse of the Bradford Dyers', Association, Limited, where'■•'■'• fJiey. were shown sample dyed pieces.in .whicti the little white streaks occasioned bv the fibres could frequently be detected: .'A burler was aleo seen at work on-the. d;Jicate and tedious opera.;ion of the fibres—which costs,• by the way,-any-thing -between sixpence and ten shillings per piece, according to the • number ; of ex traneous threads .to be 'removed. THE CONFERENCE.'

At the which took jiac, at the Offices of the. Dyers ■'As<ocivibr> : , the President said that at .Me;-ii-;. Jlnlden'svjrorks :th ey had seen th 3 lin ] >uri j-ies in the wool, whilst in that buil-ling, through the. courtesy of the. Bradford 1 .Dy ens' Association, they, had' observed i'-fte- effects of those impurities in the finished piece goods. - It was not for him: gest a leihedy, but he would call 'uptyu Mr Fawceitt, who was chairman of the Wool Trade Section of the Chamber and of the special committee in reference, ty vegetable matter in wool, and also LordMayorelect of. the city; of Bradford, Jo open the Conference. COST OF ELIMINATING FIBRE, :J ,

Mr Pawcett said that the evils brought to their attention/that day connected.,with the packing of wool had been, growing in intensity for ./some years. Attention had been drawn to the matter several times, but they had now arrived! at. what 'might be called, a crisis. It had become imperative to lay the facts of the casa in the clearest manner possible before those who had the handling of tlie wool.on the other side. They were exceedingly glad that such a distinguished coin|pany. interested in the.; production of wool •■ should have responded to their invitation. It .was a good augury. The operation of "burling," which they had witnessed, was the taking of the vegetable fibre out' of the finished cloth—taking out what never should! have been in the wool at. all. .They, would-have seen that it was impassible for the woolsorter to take all .the fibre out in the sorting, ;-ttnd so it had got info the finished article cr piece, and frequently was not detected; until the piece had been dyed. A few years ago there was : very •fewiburlers employed 1 , but now there; was a very large ;miniber. The process involved -an enormous amount of labour. It was; ap.palling to think of the cost" out even a .single ounce-of the fibre.' In; endeavouring to find 1 cut the" cause of.the evil it hid been ascertained :that the.bags or woolpacks/.;were.much inferior to-what they ueed to be, and there, was a strong suspicion l that, the difference in the, quality of the' bagging practically dated', from the time f when-their Colonial.:friendis'ceased, buying from Dundee ,and .began buying, in Calcutta.' Year.by year the.-quality,of.the bagging .inade at-'the latter .place had -been reduced.'- But aparOrom, the -quality; of the • bags- there was> also -a .considerable amount; of..' carelessness - in .the -packing. String - and fibre had' often. been • left ' in" the bag.' The 'evil "had' partly." arisen '"also 'ow-

ing to they way in whicli the wool was exhibited for sale in Australia and in London. On account of the hurry with" which the bales were ti-eated before and after the sales sweepings weie frequently mixed with the wool.; -A great deal of harm'was done in that way. He appealed- to those interested on the other side-, because their interest was to produce the very best wool they could. They had spent enormous sums of money in order to obtain thei

best breeds possible. That money had been exceedingly wisely spent. -They only required to have it pointed, out that iJ was desirable that the wool should ba put on the market in the best possible merchantable condition. A few bags had been exhibited which it had been thought it would be well to employ, and expert evidence on the subject of bags was to the effect that the extra cost of the better bag would' be about 6d each.' HOW THE GROWER WOULD BENEFIT.

If the grower used better bags that fact would have.an effect upon the buyer,, because the wool would be in a better merchantable condition. The grower would call his brokers attention /to the fact that his wool was packed in superior bags, and he-was strongly of opinion it would give confidence to the buyer. It was. a custom among Bradford buyers to keep a record as to how the lots -they liad :purcliased : turned out. That meant a very, valuable asset so far as the owner of the approved mark was concerned. He did. not believe that the : whole of the benefit would accrue to the trads of Bradford. The grower would very largely share any benefit. H£ believed a large proportion of the amount paid in wages in Bradford" for burling would find its way into the pockets of the grower. Generally speaking, when the cost of manufacture wae reduced' the producer and consumer both benefited. Wheri he began business many years ago the combing of wool cost lOd jier lb. lieved it now cost not more than 2d. That was owijig to keener competition. A buyer could afford', - .'therefore,'' to give a better price for the 'raw material, and the. producer • of the'wool benefited by a reduction in the cost of ■ manufacture. The conference had been arranged/-at the present time because it | was "the most suitable time for the colonials to attend, "but it was the worst possible season, ''.'-so' far as. the trade of BBra-dford was concerned, for the display of .faults in flie material. The. stock of wool ■ was always .'■ at its lowest at the present, and ■ consequently there was no room for the selection ot the specimens shown, v Had 'the demons stratdon been six montlis earlier it. would have been much more- extensive. However it was a very: happy augury that they had been able, td '■' gather together such a distinguished' company, and he hoped for the best possible, results. : COLONIAL OPTION/v

Mr W. Acton-Adams, .who has been in New Zealand! since 1850. and has farmed very extensively, said he did not think that a better quality Of bag ,would entirely get rid of the difficulty. The bags at present cost them about 2s each, and if the Bradford people would let them know wbat they required and: what would overcome the difficulty they would be only too pleased to adopt • their suggestions. A little extra cost in the bags would not stand in the way. Considerable discussion endued, those taking part being :—Mr *H. F. de Little' (Melbourne), Captain - Charles Wood (Christchurch), Mr T. F. Knox (Sydney), Mr J. J. Falconer (Melbonrne), Mr P. D. Percival (Warwick, Queensland),. Mr C. W. Little (Sydney),. Mr A. Taylor (London), Mr W. Henderson (London), Mr H. Dawson (London), and Mr A. H. 111ingworth, Mr W. A. Whitehead, Golonel B. Hoffman,, Mr A. R. Byles, Mr J. H. Robinson, and Mr J. Emsley, of Bradford. It appeared that uthe 'Australians realised for the first time the far-reaching effects of the presence of jute, hemp, and other .vegetable matter on-'*wool,. and sympathised very keenly-* with ,the difficulties" ' the 'manufacturers- and traders. of Bradford .had to contend with. The growers were.quite ready to fall in with any practicable proposals that could be made to obviate the difficulties, and suggestions were made that specimens of the vegetable matter found' in wool, together with pieces of material, showing the same in the finished article, should be - sent out to Australia for * exhibition to the growers. It'was also suggested that a joint committee of growers, brokers, importers, manufacturers,' and others should be formed to consider what steps should be" taken to'overcome the difficulties. Probably a' meeting of' such a committee would be arranged' to be held in Loiidon. ' » The president at the close of the conference thanked the delegates for their kindness in attending.