OURYORKSHIRE LETTER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2515, 17 July 1915, Page 15

OURYORKSHIRE LETTER

j ' -+ ■ (Hrom .Our Special .Correspondent.) . Bradford, May 28. This ■ week holidays have very largely interfered with business, and after the by no means welcome experience of baring to spend nearly a month in Coleman Street many members of the, wool trade have seen fit to take nearly .a . full week by way of holiday, being encouraged to'| do this owing to having an abundance of orders on their books, and so being able to get away with freedom, leaving in charge their foremen and managers. It would servo a very useful purpose if we had to take this opportunity of summing up recent experiences, for after all it is usually a .profitable time to review tho immediate past briefly, for by bo doing ono is able to shapo a programme for the immediate future. The Whitsuntide holiday has provided ample opportunity for reflection and ono has only to review tho standard to which wool' values have teachod to feel satisfied at What has been done. Prices are not low, but the reverse, for every class of staple, and certainly the outcome of tho recent London auctions cannot but satisfy growers, for they have realised values which aro certainly highly oreditable. Wo have been looking over a list of prices, and find that lfjd. has been paid for New South Wales staple in the grease, 17d. to I6d. being paid very frequently, while scores of . clips have mado 15d.' to 15Jd. Among the Queensland grease 16Jd. has been reached for central grown greasy combing, while amongst the scoureds 2s. id. has been paid for neeco and 2s. 4(1. for broken or pieces, quite a host of clips having sold from 2s. 5Jd, to 2s. 3Jd. I\o reasonable man can find the least fault wiiJh such values, and it only serves to eliow tho splendid prices which have been paid for good clean scoureds. Of course these are all wanted for a special purpose, and there is more than a grain of satisfaction to be derived from tho statement that these wools havo gone to our Ally and will ultimately be made into army cloths for the Russian troops. .Excellent Standing of Merinos. Looking over tlio situation ono'cannot biit bo struck with tho. excellent' standing of merino wools, and it is. remarkable to find present prices quits equal to those ruling last July before, the war broke out. At . that time tho market for fine ;wools was. beinp dictated- by the combined buying ability of tho whole of the Continent, Great Britain and. America, mills 'everywhere being' intact and in full working order. To-day there is parctically ..little consupip.tiye capacity tor merinos outside Great Britain, and one regrets very much, that oven the mills of the United States, are .riot as busy as they might be, in.fact they..must be called very slack. . The working out of the recent European army contracts has been an item of considerable" concern tomany American mills, an ■ important source of rev.enue and work having been cut off. This means that they are now entirely depending upon their own market for orders,. an<L it is'a fact that the American public is feeling -to-day quite as acutely the greut European war as we are in tins country. English textile travellers who have recently come back from the States say that things are better and more satisfactory here in England'than they are across the Atlantic. Still for all that wo find merinos making excellent figures, and one has only to look down the list of values™ paid for w«llknown clips from Australia to see 6ome big figures paid. Ordinary' 16 per cent, clean yield combir,g wool easily mado 13d., . and anything giving half weight commanded often ldid. to. 15Jd. Very big prices were paid for New England (New feouth Wales) merinos, theso making from 16d. t0.17d., even Riverina merinos, making lad. to l6Jd., while shafty'deep-grown South Australian wools also made lid. to lild. Wo lhave already indicated tho high values paid for Queensland grease,* while Queensland scoureds topped 'the market and eclipsed every other class of merino staple. All this is certainly'remarkable, ana shows that the Home trade still possesses a huge amount of buying strength, jxq doubt .tha his. jaicw Jciilitoff.iSSJm-

merino tops helping the sale of this class of raw material. High Standing of Crossbreds. The outstanding feature of the market to-day is undoubtedly tho position of crossbreds, and here-wo have something worth chronicling. It is really remarkable to find the crossbred wools of New Zealand occupying the position they do, and to seo averago crossbreds selling anywhero rfom 17(1; to 19d. is indeed a remarkable state of alfairs. All selling brokers emphasise the recovery at the recent auctions, the writer at tho timo slating that this was the outstanding feauro of the recont sales. Of course, those representing tho interests of . growers now strongly maintain that tho 2d. decline during the first week of the series had no justification whatever, and to a very large extent that is correct. The fact is, tho fall was largely brought about by a temporary loss of confidence, togetbor with a strong desiro on the part of buyers to pave the way for purchasing the forthcoming English clip on Bradford terms. We have always believed in growers receiving a full market price for theiv product, but one must remember that the taking in of big weights of crossbreds nt nearly 50 per cent, nioro than at tho corresponding series ft year ago is undoubtedly a dangerous pieco of business, and wero it not for tho possibility of the present European war continuing through another white;-, we should say that buying crossbreds at to-day's level of values would indeed bo a- rather dangerous experiment. Still we cannot see but that all tho wool recsntly bought will be wanted, and a reasonablo profit made out of it. The recovery in tho price of crossbreds was undoubtedly due to things tak- 1 ing a more favourable turn in Bradford, while the rather black time through which England and her Allies'wero passing in Prance, as well as the Dardanelles, settled ill tho minds of many'tho'impression that the war was not going to bo over for many months, and that before long further important khaki orders would have to be placed by the British War Office. These, briefly, are the factors which brought about the reversion in the attitude of the members of the trade, and toKlay the market certainly is really wonderful, with go many clips having been sold at 171 d. to 19d. Surely these figures for greasy crossbred fleeces are remarkable. The writer has been talking over the wool situation this week with a fairly large North of England sheep fanner, breeding pedigree Wensleydale sheep of a very high-<jlass order, which figure prominently at all tho leading shows in England;' He said to find English Wensleydale wool in the neighbourhood of 16. 6d. was to him a new experimce, and- the same can be said for the English halfbred wools, produced with a cross of the Scotch Blackfaced ewe and the Wensleydale ram. The. fleece of this breed is, indeed, a very useful one, but it is not so fino as the average New Zealand crossbred, but for all that when greasy crossbred wool figures - in the neighbourhood of Is: sd. to Is.' 7d.' per lb„ prices cannot in the neast be despised. The general utility of crossbred wool has been demonstrated during the past nine mouths in no slight way, and to-day crossbred wool is as strongly in demand and going as largely into consumption as ever, this really being the foundation upon which tho recovery in crossbreds has taken place.., Everybody knows the im-. portant part that crossbred wool has played in supplying the requirements of our troops upon the field of battle, anil prospects point'to that demand remaining as large as over. Never has the New Zealand clip moved into customers' hands as quickly as the current one, and. after next London sale's very little indeed ■ will bo left, and no new wool will be available till thfc following January. Possibly the urgent desire of topmakors snd spinners to put something into-stock may have been the caulse for several firms buying what they khow they will not want for gome time to come,. but all the same they have felt inspired to put good, money into wool, and therefore have uouglit very liberally indeed. There aTe some who are already prophesying dearer crossbred wool in London in July, but. that will depend a good deal on developments. Neutral Continental countries as well as America are no doubt feeling the effects of being denied the privileges of buying fair weights of New Zealand crossbreds as they have dono in. years gone by, but so long as tho war lasts Greait Britain is certain to insist upon the embargo being maintained, and even then there, will be no surplus stocks of crossbreds, ' . " Manufacturing Conditions Healthy. The 6tate of the textile trado'is a remarkable ono, and all mills fire still very busy. We find that overtimo is still general, notwithstanding that most factories have been standing two days this week. After being in a hat mill and working anywhere from 1 to 15 hours day, factory employees need a little respite, and they went back to work last Wednesday feeling all the better for- a two-days' holiday. The price of merino Itops is to-day a record, and 3s. is quoted almost everywhere in Bradford for 64's for spot, delivery; in. .fact,. many firms have sold as far forward as next August and September at that price for a really tiptop article. There seems to be a couipleto absenco of all stocks, and undoubtedly the consumption of merinos is developing. Among several London houses great surprise is expressed at whero all the merino wool is going to, but tho consumption of thick counts in Leicester is so large that spinners aTe quite up to topmakere, who seem totally unable to deliver sufficient tops to keep frames runnitig. Pr course, the difficulty really is "with' commission wool combers, and thoy say they are greatly handicapped by the lacy of hands, having much machinery standing ovory night which out to be fully run. It is not to-day the price of wool which is determining the actual market value of tops, but machinery and its limited output. 'I'liore is a huge demand also on export account- which topmakers cannot in th» least meet. Therefore, difficulty is being felt by • many, and much bad feeling is at present in evidence on account of topmakers being linablo to carry out their contracts. That is Teally the situaihon in merinos, and to a very large extent it; also obtains in crossbreds. Here again a strong demand is being oxperienccd for 50*s to ,56's, and more lower qualities aro also moving, thanks to continued activity on the part of crossbred spinners. The whole ■ situation manifests great healthiness, and everything indicates a. continuance of tho present satisfactory, conditions, ■ .. , '*