Handling of British Wool. 



7 



by 28 Geo. III., cap. 38, that " Every person offending as 

 above shall, in lieu of every sixpence forfeit, pay two 

 shillings for every fleece, and the whole thereof to go to the 

 finder or prover of the said deceit, to be heard and deter- 

 mined by one or more magistrates in a summary way. 

 Fleeces also bound up with cord, etc., or found wetted inside, 

 are subject to the same penalty." 



Although these Acts were repealed, as far as Great Britain 

 was concerned, nearly forty years ago, along with some 

 others which were obsolete, the habit of getting wool up in 

 accordance with the law had become so common that the 

 wool trade allowed these Acts to be abolished without any 

 objection and the practice of getting up wool remained the 

 same as before the abolition of these Acts. It is probable, 

 however, that the practice of leaving sheep unwashed may 

 have given rise to some slipshod handling of wool in the past 

 few years. It would be an unfortunate circumstance if the 

 British wool grower should, at a moment when competition 

 is keenest, depart from tne honoured practices of his pre- 

 decessors, on the ground that there has been a fall in prices. 

 It is true that the large import of wool has brought down the 

 price of the domestic article, but it would be a mistake to 

 argue that because the price is low there is less necessity to 

 pay attention to the getting up of home-grown wool 

 to compete with imported varieties. The argument that 

 because prices are low the article ought to be neglected 

 and less care given to it is sufficient to produce a feeling 

 of despair in the minds of those who are interested in 

 the wool trade. It is like saying, "We have a very hard 

 fight for our business : the tendency of prices is down- 

 wards, let us, therefore, deliver the article in a worse con- 

 dition." 



Mutton is now the dominant factor in the wool trade, and 

 is not only transforming the short-wool flocks in the colonies 

 into long wool, but is transforming our long- wool flocks at 

 home into half-breds. Thus we have concentrated from two 

 different points the influence of mutton in increasing a certain 

 particular class of wool, a class of which probably three- 

 fourths of the English clip is composed. 



