THE RISE IN WOOL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1302, 30 July 1886, Page 2

THE RISE IN WOOL

(Melbourne Argus ) It is no news to Australians to be re* minded that woolgrowera in all the five colonies have gone through two years cf weary watching fcr a b oak in the cloud of dulness and depression which hung over the wosl industry. The “ jump” in the price of wool in London telegraphed to us yesterday may be only temporary and there may be a reaction. Bat it is • cheering and encouraging turn of fortune's wheel for all concerned. Since 1883 btfZ m skies, baked pastures, and dusty river beds have been the montonons tale from Q loens'aod and New Sooth Wales. Want of feed acd want of water bare dice mated or annihilated flocks, and swept great fortunes out of existence, right and left, in those colonies. These are incidents only too famailiir in the history of Australian wool growing; but serious as are the disasters brought on by bad seasons, it has been a specially .calamitous feature of the recent depression in wool, that as supply fell off demand fell off too, I i Victoria the steady depreciation in the value cf wool has told, perhaps, mon disastrously than the drought. In tha other colonies tha two plaguaa have bad to be borne together. Our readers have already doubtless calculated that an average rise of 24 or 3d per lb a.l round in wool is mainly a bonus or “windfall” to woolbrokers, and to yrhose fortunes are harnessed to the proa? parity ofjtbisjgreat staple. ThogroWer, lit the majority of oases, was bound to those accept almost any price. If wool coaid bo produced at all at fifteen pence per lb, eighteen pence means just as much sheet profit. It is virlnilly equivalent to the discovery of over a million and a half of gold In some unexpected and cheaply worked colonial goldfield. The gradual advance since the last wool sales la London, and the marked improvement on Tuesday last, may have been dk» coanted to a certain extent. Possibly it was “ now or never” with a good many - unlucky woolgrowets. It is no secret that numbers of pastoraliats have been “ carried” by the banks, mortgage and finance companies of re<eotyeo*i. Ttotj however, dees not alter the fact that the community generally mast share In tha increased value of enr chief Victorian ‘ staple. Funds which have been looked up in advances on unprofitable stations, and on unsaleable wot 1, will now be lilerated ft-r emnloyment in other branches of -colonial industry and commerce, while financiers will be encouraged, »nd will Lei themselves justified In tha future in supporting pastoral enterprises when carried on by prudent men. One or two circumstances indicate that the present rise in London quotations may be explained on the sitpplfr' and glofashioned groundsthat manufactures find the normal demand for woollen and worsted goods increasing more rapidly than the supply of wool. It may be assumed that woollen manufacturers In common with all other manufacturers in these days have been purchasing raw material cautiously, and ** from bands to mouth,” during the last few months, and that they have maintained that policy a? - long as they dared, There has probably been no speculative baying of wool. Tha low “bank rate’ 1 in all the European capitals indicates that all through the markets speculation for the rise is still dormant, or dead. Indeed the days whan capitalists or middlemen took eff the market large quantities of staple commodities, such as iron, cotton, oils, &o , and held' them for an advacce, seem to have completely vanished. Tno present excited buying m«y be taken to be lha competition of manufacturers, who intend to use what they boy, and are getting nervous about stocks, A sustained advance would, however, Inevitably bring ip speculators with the Intention of holding wool for even better prices than those paw ruling, and that would mean a rise on the top of the present rise. It is an old colonial saying that woolgrowing is a lottery, and that station owning is a species of gambling—a throwing of the dice against drought and bankruptcy. On the other hand, monpy partly made, money which pours in p'heu three or four good seasons follow each other—when there is a run on the red in fact—

s squandered as recklessly as it Is made. Tftere is no doubt that “the squatter” spends his money like a prince, and when he does fail, fails like a gentlemen of the ancient regfme. If the practice of giving advice or iuoa’culating lessons of prndorce hud not pone bltogether out of fashion, the moat filling time to ente? a protest against that imprudence and extravagance, which has come to be a characteristic of the “copp'anlone of the golden fierce" in Australia, would bt when a prospect opens up of the return of better Utme and better prices to wool* The Bousedjumuadst 12.6 a.m. | growers,