AUCKLAND WOOL SALES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 13

AUCKLAND WOOL SALES.

SATISFACTORY PRICES. (PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, January 30. Over 11,400 bales were presented at the second wool sale of the season, held to-day. On account of wool having been held back from the first sale through the labour troubles, tho catalogue was exceptionally large, and a good clearance was effected of all lines at satisfactory prices. Thc feature of the sale was the exceptional prices realised for lambs' wool, good sorts making up to lljd per lb, and seedy from 6d to 7d per lb. Prices on the whole were very satisfactory, comparing favourably with any realised in New Zealand this summer, if an exception be made in favour of certain lines which always command relatively high prices, at Dunedin. Strong crossbred brought prices fully equal to those obtained in any other New Zealand centre, if not a shade higher. Compared with the first sale of the season in November, crossbreds sold at equal rates; strong crossbreds and threequarter wools were Jd to Id per lb higher; shabby coarse crossbred wools were from par- to id higher;. bellies and pieces sold from par to id higher. Bitter complaints are made by buyers as to the manner in which the wool was put up. "I have had 23 years' experience in New Zealand, and I have never seen a collection of nearly 11,500 bales of wool put up with such little regard for making it marketable." declared Mr W. Hill, president of the New Zealand Wool Buyers' Association. To the bad get-up of the wool is attributed the comparative absence of American competition. An American buyer remarked that a good many farmers had the idea that they could put anything into their bales, and tho Americans would buy it all. Thero was no ground for such an assumption; Americans would compete for all classes that were well grown and properly prepared for the market, but not for anything else. It could not be said that the removal of the tariff against tho introduction of foreign wool into the United States had had any effect on to-day's sale. Those who expected to see keen competition from America overlooked, among other things, the i fact that when the tariff was removed , on December Ist there were 40,000,000 lbs of foreign wood in bond in the United States, equal _. about six months' consumption under the existing conditions.