THE WOOL DRAFT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 765, 14 March 1910, Page 8

THE WOOL DRAFT.

PKOTESTS AGAINST ABOLITION. Hy Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright _ , London, March 11. Two,hundred and fifty English woolbuyers, 3bO Continental buyers, and 30 American have signed protests against tho abolition of the wool draft. A meeting of buyers in London unanimouslj' resolved that in the event of any attempt being made to' catalogue or sell wools in Lo'ndon without the customarv draft allowance, a committee of the Woo"l Buyers' Association will call- upon the signatories to abstain from buying at public auction or by private treaty. , The proposal to discontinue the draft allowance of lib. per cwt. on wool emana-ted from Australia, and last month the London Importers' Committee and the London woolbrokers decided not to consent to the discontinuance. The buyers for English, Continental, and American houses to tho number of 650 have joined in the protests against. the abolition of the allowance. The care for Australia is thus stated by a contemporary:—"At one time tho custom was a most. equitable arrangement, between buyers and sellers, but that .ras in tho days when wool-classing wool(ihowing, and wool-selling were not on the same, plane as they are to-day. ■ It i 6 idle to pretend that the weighing conditions of wool to-day are in any way similar- to the time when the one pound per cwt. draft allowance was made to the buyers. How stringent tho rules are in tho Sydney market with regard to weights is but imperfectly understood. For instance, all wools have'to be weighed by the woolbrokers within '48 hours of tho.receipt of the wool in store. Or, rather, the wool has to be weighed within that time by sworn weighers, on machines that givo no possibility of. being lib. per cwt. out. Moreover, only original in-weights are charged, unless out-weights, are required; and then, of course, out-weights must equal inwcights—less' any samples taken out by the buyers. These provisions in the selling regulations were never dreamed of when the pound per cwt.'. draft allowance was made; nor could such possibly have been proposed, simply because the rnles pro* vide for , the buyer getting his wool invoiced at the weight as it arrived in store, no matter what its weiehtis when taken out, bo long, of course, as it is not less than when received. These arrangements without aiiy pound per cwt. thrown in are generous.enough." .