A WOOL CONTROL BOARD.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18425, 4 July 1925, Page 16

A WOOL CONTROL BOARD.

TO TITJt XDITOB OF "THB MISS." Sir,—l would like to say a few things regarding the prices of wool a"t the London May sales mentioned in your Tuesday's "Press," and also about Mr Parkinson's opposition to a Wool Control Board being formed. The actual drop in the price of Now Zealand wool between the March sales and May sales was Sd to 10d per lb on all grades of greasy wool, and very nearly 50 per cent, drop on prices paid at our local sales last November. Wool that was valued by the woolbrokers for last London sales at 21d for crossbred was sold for 13d, and fine super halfbred, valued at 29d, sold for 19d. This wool was sold three days before the sales closed, therefore the prices can be taken as a very fair average for that sale. Now, -what will happen at the next sales this month if there is not something done very soon in the way of a Control Board? The over-supply of

wool has been piling up in London ever since last sale, and unless there is a very sudden move in the manufacturing trade, that wool will be sold at very much lower prices than at the May sales. That would mean tint a big lot of the wool will get into the hands of manufacturers who could hold it to keep the price down to suit themselves. I do not think that the mnaufacturers want to have the wool forced on them like that. They would be very much better served if a regular supply was fixed at regular prices, and a Control Board could regulate the supply of wool much easier than the Meat Board can regulate the supply of meat, because wool-growers can easily keep back some of their wool and leave it in the shearing shed. It will not deterioate by keeping, and is good security to get an advance on if necessary. The mere fact of the sales being limited to a fixed number of bales would make growers keep what wool they could not get into the sale in their own sheds, and they could arrange their own finances without any help from the Control Board.—Yours, etc., WOOL-GROWER. July 2nd, 1923.