THREAT TO WOOL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 274, 19 November 1943, Page 3

THREAT TO WOOL

SYNTHETIC FIBRES COMPETITION IMMENSE SUM AT STAKE IN AUSTRALIA

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Recd. 10.50 p.m Sydney, Nov. 18. Unless scientific measures to improve wool production in Australia were taken immediately the entire industry, worth £75,000,000 a year to the Commonwealth, would be in a precarious position, said Professor Clunies Ross, Dean Faculty of Veterinary Science at Sydney University and exchairman of the International Wool Secretariat in London.

To meet the threat of synthetic wool fibres, said Professor Ross, Australian sheep could be made to produce 50 per cent, more wool than at presept. “Australia, though more dependent than any other country on her livestock, has lagged far behind them in the application of scientific principles. A Commonwealth-wide programme oi research should be undertaken immediately and an Institute of Wool Research set up. Talk of expanse should be silenced by the realisation that a fall of one penny a pound in the price of wool costs Australia £5,000,000.” Production costs could be lessened by more effective control of nutrition and scientific working knowledge of •pasture management. Wool production coi\j be increased by half if the sheep vviV properly nourished. Breeding methods would also have to be changed. Progeny testing and other scientific research in breeding should start at once. Wool could be presented in a multitude of new and attractive forms. As a matter of the greatest urgency, textile manufacture should be vastly expanded. Experimental work should be pushed forward in designing and dyeing processes, and the greater exploitation of wool's hygienic and healthful properties. The expenditure of even a proportion of the money and energy being spent in perfecting sythetle fibres would put the wool industry out of danger.