AVERAGE WOOL PRICE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 66, 20 March 1943, Page 4

AVERAGE WOOL PRICE

EXCEPTION TO MR. ROBERTS’ FIGURES (P.A.) Wellington. March 19. “In his statement on Thursday on the wool question, Mr. Ben Roberts, M.P., made reference to the average wool price from 1927-28 to 1938-39,” said Mr. A. P. O’Shea, Dominion secretary of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union. “What should be pointed out is that during the period Mr. Roberts referred to there were five years of slump prices. It also should not be forgotten that to-day the value ot money is nominally 25 per cent. less than in most of those years, and the real value of money is considerably lower than that. It should also be remembered that in 1939 the plight of the sheep industry was such that the Government set up a Royal Commission to investigate the condition of the industry and report on it. Having regard to these facts it will be obvious that a very great improvement in the returns for the industry’s products was urgently necessary, otherwise the nosition of sheep-farming would have been very serious indeed. For the five years of slump prices referred to the return to the woolgrowers was back to, and even below, the disastrous level of the 1920-22 slump. “In these circumstances it can hardly be argued that the commandeer price is exceptionally generous.” concluded Mr. O’Shea.