OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2406, 11 March 1915, Page 8

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER

LONDON WOOL SALES.

OPENING SHOWS BETTER DEMAND FOE MERINOS AT FIRMER PRICES.

... (From Our Spool*! Correspondent.) London, January 22, 1015. There is always great interets shown in ■ ■ >he course of wool'values when a London series: of sales begins, and this week interesl has been very largely transferred - Siom consuming to distributing centres. The opening of., the auctions in Australia synchronising- with those in London, has also helped Ito materially stimu- ; lat.j the .whole' market, and-onco moro ' - trade is engaged in lifting the Ausv tjalasi.m and South African supplies. We ti.ro glad to think that there is a need i of them, and although prices naturally cannot satisfy either growers or impot tere like they have done during Tecent • years, considering the state of Europe and -.. .the fact .of the principal consuming coun.tries being embroiled. in. a terrible war vjmakes one' devoutly thankful that things ; aro no worse. One cannot but think that ,;.af conditions had been similar to what ther .were in 1870, wool would have been •!,worth no more than cotton, but itho fact Is remarkable that as supplies haTO increased, so has consumption, *nd there , ;is ;no . more wool being grown than the world actually requires. However, Lon-don...is;to-day. the chief',centre of intcrest, and wo nro satisfied that on the . , whole.i decent start has been mado. 'Wo, nave to recognise that the sales are being .V conducted on a broader buying basis than . we. have seen for: somo'time, and therefore are satisfied that'a little more good, is going txi be got out' of the current .-. ieries than! looked likely a month ago. Quantities Available. There is nothing particularly new t» .record with reference to x the" arrivals. Wo .always look for a good display of merinos. at this time of the year, and this week has'been no . exception to ithe : rule. Australia has sent 6ome of her ■ best. wools,i particularly from New South ; /[Walesi the\Biveriha - being well to the, 1 front. Victoria; ,too, : has submitted some very good,clips, but it.is,just a little -boo . ..early to see offered the cream of the iWest' Victorian marks. At tho same iime, the most fastidious buyer can have his ; flll of. any class'of raw material, .proTiding ho is prepared to pay the price, end the competition has been fully bet'ter than we expected, thanks to the broader basis which has been created on . account-of the lifting; of the embargo in favour of. shipping merinos to the United .' States, and neutral Continental countries when a guarantee can be 'given that the : : wools* wjll ; not be reshipped. We must . admit that the embargo has been lifted in, favour, of the United States a little soonf, or than we. expected, but it is all in tho interests of our colonies, and on that account no one can g-rumble. We find the Home trade in a very "happy vein, and things have developed quicker and more favourably than looked likely at the close of the, December auctions. To-day tho whole. Home industry is rejoicing in u. .boom ■; the like of which' has never been ■; seen' "by any giving pai;ty, an'd as-long a? .■ tho war lasts we can take, it that there , .13 going to be a continuance of the present satisfactory times. The arrivals ato I fully .as heavy as expectc'd; in fact, itho--38,000 bales from New Zealand havo snr- ' prised;-a. good many, as such a, weight wai not; expected before February at the earliest, but the trade stands in urgent need of .these:wools, and we fully antici- . Twite, them felling like > hot 'caMs. Below. we give a list of the amrals for the current series! .- , Approximate Quantities to be Offered. For-' - Total New, wardinga Old availarrivals.. direct, stock, able. Bales.- Bales. Bales. Bale.-*. Sydney ...... 71,000 ' 18,300 4,400 57,100 ■Queensland 11,750 1,300 4,000' 17,450 Pt. Phillip 27,450 13,000 . 800 15,250 Adelaide .... .19,350' 13,400 900 • 6,950 Swan Eiver. 15,400 — ' 500 16,200 Tasmania " 100 - * — — • 100 •New Zealand 40,800 2,500 400... 36,700 Cape. ....... 61,050 48,500 1,700 14,250 • ' 250,000' '97,000 13,000. 166,000 Aboust 400 "bales Punta Arenas and 1500 bales Eiver Plato will be offered this ■ series.' Embargo Modified. The'announcement made last Monday .; -that new conditions regarding the. shipment, of merino wool for America and Euiopean. neutral countries had been 'introduced by the Board of Trado'gave rise 'to 'a good deal of gossip in consuming -centres. The .president of the; Associaitioned Selling Wool Brokers received the following interesting communication :— "Sir,—l am''directed by tho Board of ■Tiade to acquaint you, for'the informa■;;tion of the members of your association, ■that arrangements have, now been put .-."fintri operation whereby licenses will in ; 'general be issued ..freely for the shipment of merino wool ,to the United ■ States of upon condition that intending ■ shippers make a statutory declaration to tho effect that the consignee to whom the ■ vrdol is being 6ent is kndwn'to them, and •that they havo been able to obtain assurances that they consider adequate that none of the wool for which a license is : fought will be re-exported from the Unit- : 'ted States of America to any destination. , : "I am to add that licenses in respect iof shipments of merino wool to 'neutral European countries will be issued ~ on * similar provided the Governments of; such countries' have themselves. proJifbited the exportation of wool from .■ .their territories—l am (signed), ■ Ernest, <J. Moggridge." The above makes it very clear tbalt wool can now be shipped to the United States (provided proper guarantees ar,e forthcoming that tho wool is not going to bo re--exported to any destination. So far as ■ European countries are concerned the ' shipment is, . only to be . allowed to those countries' where tho Govern- :, : ment has put an embargo .on the expert iof wool, which confines consumption, to ' that country' alone. Some have expressled, little faith iu the latter, as the in-, ■ffo-mation is forthcoming that notwithstanding Sweden having prohibited the 'export of wool and allied"products,'it has ,-jmade little difference to the. shipment of Ifabrics to Germany, and that ' is '• just ono particular where some think a mis~ 1 take has been made in allowing' merinos 'to bo sent to'neutral Continental coun'tries. During ithe past.few.weelis'considerable quantities 'of noils -.arid'' , merino •yam have been shipped# Italy, Portugal, land also Norway-and Sweden, and' iff tho 'fully manufactured articles go through io Germany either from; Italy, Holland, or Sweden, it will defeat, the. object of the War Office. However, we shall', havo •to run tho gauntlet, and rely upon the posi-. ' tiou of tnose', buying raw. materials from this country. . •- ' ' ,

1 A Creditable Opening. Two sellers put before the "room last. Tuesday'decent catalogues, merinos predominating in. them. '. The show; of these wools was on the,-whole good, both New South "Wales and -Victim being very well represented. ~/I|iycrina:sent.a .very good; llip in the Tuppal mark, which has not been in Coleman. Street in its entirety 'for some considerable time.- There wero Svfex.also one or two more good-brands, all-of which commanded: very keen competition. 'Of course, the Home trade : had things Tory largely to themselves, although a Si: 'few effective bids were given: on behalf fgiof. the . United States. Bradford top/makers wero particularly to. the front, •one or two firms in particular, who are ''(I known to be heavily sold forward and in urgent need of'material to keep their combing plants going. • Others/ took * things very quietly, although they put some useful bids; When compared ftfiV- ' with the close of the last series we con--aider that shafty, well-grown, greasy combing wools frequently made Jd. more, " ' and occasionally even Id. more, but on the whole the improvement was.covered by Jd." In the more waaty parcels, wo can seo very little difference, in fact on ■ gome of the reoffered wools withdrawn . at the previous sales no more was Did. "ft hat we liked best about' the initial sitr ting was the improved competition, this being a marked contrast to the dragging sales which took place towards the end. Zof last series. Scoured merinos did not r i'/'show any change, afT least Australian classes.. Thero was an improved demand for snow white Cupes, and theso appreciated id. to Id., whilo good combing greasy wools also mostly appreciated id., but there was little change in wastyclothKJ;: ' in? wools. The event of the evening was. tho eale > :j of tho few crossbreds, and for theso ex- | cellent figures wero forthcoming. They y,ould never liavo bee|i jsj4d if tho fLrni^i

who bought them had not been actually fast for them, and whilo we could not call fine haifbreds more than Id. dearer, yet for ' the' medium crossbreds extreme prices were forthcoming, tho advances being Id., while coarse crossbreds, tho few' there were,- appreciated Jd. "to Id. Slipes sold mostly at par to id. better; Succeeding sales have gone off very well, competition being well sustained, and full opening prices also forthcoming. All decent wools arc now worth 5 per cent, more money. The Outlook. . With reference to the outlook, Messrs. H. Dawson and Co. say: —"The' innate teudency of the wool market to devolop surprises is well known, and the industry has become accustomed to them. It is, however, more than usually perplexing, Rfter .the recent scarcity aud fauiino rates, that there ehould be further appreciation of crossbred values with tho rapidly' increasing supplies that are now becoming' available. . . "The Sensational advances in South America are explicable because the markets there are the only ones open to the world's buyers. But there has also followed a further advanco in New Zealand and the Australian centres which are open only to British buyers' for crossbreds. •

. "The excited demand for these wools is due to the further placing of orders for military cloths during the past week, and also to the fact that any sanguine views of an., early termination of the war are gradually, being dispelled. It is an easy calculation to reckon that if a soldier requires a new suit of clothes every two months the whole of the Now Zealand clip will be absorbed by our 2,000,000 men alone during the year. Consequently the raising of the embargo on crossbreds is not likely to be a practical question for some time, if the Government continues to. exercise its present policy of supervision and protection, i In merinos the situation is very perploiing, but with the recent announcement of 'permission to make shipments under licenso in favour of the United States, Japan, and the Allies, together with the deploted state of the top market in Yorkshire, there has been a stronger tone. There seem to be good chances of a generally improving support being given to fine wools on the part of neutral countries, if only because, of the difficulty, of securing crossbreds. _ It., is probable that fieutrals like Italy will soon be willing to give the necessary guarantees ia order to procuro the supplios which are so greatly -needed by tnem. There are many standing armies -that have to be clothed outside the enemy countries, and everything' points to an increasing demand for wools not only at this ■ series, but during the next , few months, if our markets are opened to all neutrals, ,

■"The difficulties of the Home consumers are greatly intensified, just now by the inability to secure deliveries of wools which have been bought in the overseas markets, but which are unobtainable owing to the congestion at the ' docks (London and Liverpool) and on the railways. The deliveries on contracts for January are consequently much delayed, and great inconvenience is being experienced throughout the industry. In addition to this, the high freight?, together with the generally increased charges for insurance and- exchange,'are becoming a serious tax on the raw material."