AT THE WOOL SALE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2311, 19 November 1914, Page 7

AT THE WOOL SALE

BUYERS VERY KEEN

PRICES SOAR UPWARDS

_"Huf-Hufl-Hufl» "Three" "Ton!" XJone—next lot I Ten—ton—ten—ono —one—huf—huf—huf—three I" Onco more the auctioneer's hammer foil, and the coatless and sometimes eollarlcss buyer form Bradford and. elsewhere jotted down the price of the last lot with the right hand, whilst the left was employed in removing the perspiration from his shining brow. It was hot wort. The auctioneer has a big catalogue to get through, and ho makes it oJear that ho has no time to waste, ilie buyers (in their part know exactly How tar they are prepared to go, and are ready to yell their limit until ;they turn purple. So that the going is fairy rapid, and one must have somo knowledge of the; business in hand to note the prices per Ib. of each lot accurately. To the man in tho street who has never witnessed a wool sale, the sight is an extraordinary one. With ten hot fed men, standing forward on their feet and yelling something incomprehensible as they direct threatening gestures at the auctioneer,' one is inclined to think that the age of reason is not yet fully developed, yet there- were never sharper, cooler men. than those wool buyers—men who for the most part have come from the other side of the world to act as one sees them acting. They are not only buyers, but shrewd experts, who have been carefully through every line, and know to a nicety what lots to bid for, how high to ;go, and how much their principals require from the sale.'

"Hufl Hufl Huf!" There are at least six men screaming "Huf," and the auctioneer looks puzzled. As he scratches-his head with his hammer, u Voice says "Three I" whereupon all bidders resume their seats, lose their fierce earnestness, and smile pleasantly upon the other. They are evidently not a bit wild at all. The "buyer's, glare" is only one part of the business; It is meant to intimidate the auctioneer. If the bidder is dreadfully in earnest and .looks it, the auctioneer has to consider him in the running as the first bidder of the price called. If he is halfhearted, and does not look as though a blood-vessel' might burst at any moment, he is knocked clean out of the auctioneer's consideration. It should be explained, for the benefit of the , uninitiated, that the bidding for wool is so much per lb., and advances are made in farthings. ' So if a lot start at nine (9d.), the nest bid would be one- (9Jd.), and that following, our.bld friend (from Bradford), "huf,". or, in another-word, half (9jd.). The call of three: wouid mean 93d., and so on to ten _(10d.). "It seems to be a very .primitive way of selling anything," ventured a reporter to one of the- oldest buyers in New Zealand during yesterday's sale. "Can you suggest anything.better?" was the interrogatory reply. "Seo — here are nine men representing Bradford'firms all after the same lines, .and not more than a ' halfpenny between' .their bids. •Who are you going to. sell to? If bids were asked for- privately by letter, they would probably all offer the same figare. No—this is the only way; and the auctioneer is the man who has to say who gets the lot, and its for the smart buyer, -to get in as early as possible, and save farthings (per lb.) wherever he can." ' . Our informant ,said..thot there was a Btrong' keen' market for the wool offering in AVcllir.gton, the coarse cross-, bred wool favoured in the district being in pronounced demand. - The buyers v/ere not so numerous.as usual, owing to the Continental representatives being missing. . Last year there were at least four French, buyers hore, but all the manufacturing towns dealing with wool—Valenciennes, Lille, Roubaix, etc. —were all in the fighting line, where all manufacturing had necessarily ceased a couple of months ago. AU the wool manufacturing of France was centred in the extreme north, so that France Would- be almost entirely dependent upon England'for supplies of winter clothing. . Belgian and German buywere also absent. 1 .■■'■■ \

"War—why, you don't know that war is on out here," said another wool man, who , attended yesterday's sale. "You people are living as if nothing is happening at all at Home. The difference is just one of distance. In England the peoplo , don't appear to realise that a day's excursion away a nation is being butchered to extinction. You have heard what the Germans are doing to the women, and you've heard of them lopping off the hands and ears of tiny children, but you haven't heard what is being done to the Belgian prisoners. The latest'atrocity seeks to hasten the end of the Belgian' people altogether. . . .By jovel That's a thumping good price for that, lot I"