WOOL PROSPECTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23316, 27 September 1945, Page 5

WOOL PROSPECTS

British Factories To Reopen Increased Consumption N.Z.P A.—Special Correspondent (7.30 p.m.i LONDON. Sept. 25. ' The Dominion wool industry will welcome the official announcement in Bradford that certain British wool and textile factories closed under wartime production concentration schemes are to be reopened. The Wool Controller (Sir Harry Shackleton) has appealed to firms at present employing workers from these closed factories to facilitate their return to their former employment. It is expected that the reopening of other closed firms will follow and n the reasonably near future al; firms, which were temporarily closed so that their premises and labour could be placed at the disposal of other phases of the war effort, will be commissioned again.

From the viewpoint of the Dominion wool producer this is a gratifying development and foreshadows an early substantial increase in Britain's wool consuming capacity, and it dispels the gloomy forebodings of certain sections of Dominion woolgrowers, who feared that Britain had so curtailed her wool consuming capacity in the interest cf the war effort that some years would be required before she would again be able to consume her pre-war volume of wool. The truth is that, although Britain’s wool consuming industry was compressed into smaller compass so that the war effort in other directions could be expanded, the contraction was skilfully organised with the view as rapidly as possible to restore the full manufacture as soon as circumstances permitted. The firms whose mills were closed remained full commercial entities and had their wool rations processed for them by the continuing firms. The former, therefore, are quite ready to resume work on their own plant as soon as permission is given and as they reclaim their workers from places where the latter are now employed. It means that the whole industry will oe well placed for reabsorbing former workers as they are released from the forces and munition factories. The trade at Bradford looks for a substantial expansion in Britain’s rate of wool consumption and reconversion to full peacetime trade, which will be as rapid as thb rate at which former operatives return from the war. Controls Not Removed In view of this optimistic picture, it is perhaps disappointing for New Zealand to learn that wool textiles are not included in the large list of manufactured goods from which Britain just removed export control. It might be supported, if production prospects are so bright, that the authorities might have found it possible to remove the export restrictions on wool textiles which New Zealand and other Dominions are anxious to purchase in large quantities. In spite of the expanding production, the total home and overseas demand for '. ‘itish cloths is so great that directional control of production is still necessary if equitable distribution is to be maintained It seems possible as a result of workers returning from the war and closed firms reopening that there will be brighter prospects of increased export allocation, and the Dominions occupy a favoured position in this connection. , , , ■ ,1.., Official figures show that during the first six months of 1945. New Zealand was the third largest, overseas customer for British wool cloth, the figures being as follows, in million square yards: South Africa. 6.8: Canada 5.<: New Zealand. 1.44: Australia. 0.5.