OUR FIRST WOOL SALE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 10 May 1912, Page 8

OUR FIRST WOOL SALE.

A VETERAN'S RECOLLECTIONS. Mr. John Rhodes, a well-known Yorkshireman, recently gave the Bradford "Observer" soma interesting particulars of. tho ..wool tnuje. . This gentleman was present at the' sale at which the first wool from New Zealand was offered. It was only a small shipment. Also, it was two years' growth! It did not fetch so much as Australian—it was a new sample, and buyers looked askance at it; but jlr. Rhodes bought the lot, and took it back to Bradford, where it. milled so well and was so much thought of that he was instructed to buy any similar wool which was offered. This, however, proved to bo no easy ,task, for evidently the fame of the wool had gone abroad, and he had •to-contend with very strong competition. It was only after much bidding that he eventually secured the whole of the wool which had arrived. This was seventyyears ago. Fancy one firm buying the whole of tho New Zealand output now! Seventy year; ago travelling was difficult, too. To get to these sales From "Bradford it was necessary to leave for .Leeds about four o'clock in the afternoon, where the travellers joined the ? stage coach for London. Sometimes', tile outside passengers had their faces so. frostbitten that, they couldn't shavo'-.for a week. : Now ono jumps into the express train, and a few hours later, warm and comfortable, slops nut in London. The wool, too reaches its destination wiih nearly equal rapidity, and the wool growing o'n'our sheep's back in October niay tiuite possibly be worn on the back of their owner "during the following winter.