COLOSSAL WAR PROFITS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16034, 27 January 1920, Page 2

COLOSSAL WAR PROFITS.

WOOL TOPS AND TARNS,

INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE'S

REPORT,

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, January 25.

The report of the committee which investigated the profits on wool tops and yarns states that all Australian wool auctioned since wool was decontrolled in April belonged to the British Government, which obtained considerable profit owing to the high prices at auctions, especially for finer qualities. It is impossible to ascei’tain definitely the Government’s total profit, of which half will he returned to the Australian Government for distribution among woolgrowers. The Board of Trade rejected the Wool Councils standard clothing scheme for supplying clothing to the British public at reasonable prices. The Board of Trade mistakenly believed the Profiteering Act would check prices. The report states that among the causes contributing to the present prices of raw material are the excess of demand over the supply of transport, delay and cessation of sales in Australia, and concentration of buying in England. The high subsequent stages are largely due bo the impossibility to fulfil orders. Makers are able to ask almost any price, especially for the finest quality. The report does pot attempt to estimate the profits on raw wool at auctions. It simply says “They are colossal.”

The only estimate hitherto is Mackinder’s, of sixty millions sterling 1 , shared by the British Government and Australian and New Zealand growers. The subject is attracting great attention in the newspapers. Later reports dealing with the makers’ profits are awaited with interest. There is a demand in some quarters for a Royal Commission, similar to the Coal Mines Commission, empowered to examine the books of manufacturers, spinners, and others.