LONDON WOOL SALES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2867, 4 September 1916, Page 10

LONDON WOOL SALES

MERINOS ONCE MORE IN THE ASCENDANT

(From Our Special Correspondent.) London, July 13, 1916. ■ ■ Thore is again a deoided show of ' life in Coleman Street Wool Exohange, ! where various sections of the trade are BBsembled trying to digest another good meal. ;Last Tuesday saw the beginning ■ j 'of the fifth series, and each day has wit- / .nesscd a very-good show of life, there being a great : desire to : acquire wool; One often thinks that supplies are very /much lie a never failing stream. At 1 times there is drought, when the trickle on the mountain-side almost ceases, and ■' in a large measure there_. are seasons of the year wlien wool supplies do not. pour into London.' with tho same vigour as at - other times.';',,Wo have now. arrived at the time of;,'the year when naturally •applies are somewhat less, the end fast ' approaching to the last colonial clip. < This is, very much in evideneo in r» gard to supplies of merinos, the offerings this series being only about 50,000 'bales, compared with moro than double that quantity - at the corresponding aeries a year This is largely due to ' ,tho greatly increased sales m- the colonies, and though London selling brok--1 era do not like;this aspect of affairs, at turrentivalues they, cannot grumble, and Veverything:'seems to indicate .thai; next season more wool than oyer will be sold in the colonies owing to such high values : prevailing. The time to sell wool in Coleman . Street is undoubtedly -when values are low, but: at a time like the : present,: when prices are extraordinarily high, no one can be-surprised if full advantage is taken of colonial markets, and tho risk of a fall is put ,upon the backs of the actual consumer. > ■ Is There a Chance of a Slump? At first eight this title may to some extent seem to be outside the scope of ■ tho London sales, but it is not so. Only ; this week a gentleman who lias been actively; engaged in tho trade, for, fifty years, asked the question: where is' all the wool, and where has.it gone to? He still failed: to comprehend the possibilij ;. 1 v.; ities which the consumptive end of the trade has revealed, no doubt bringing somewhat old. ideas to bear upon his ' judgment of ■ the. situation. It has inv deed been a revelation to, all sections of jthe trade to see the huge quantities of wool/consumed here in Great Britain, ■ but one must not forget the'great outstanding, fact that- in: the ■. shoddy districts of 'Dewsbury,;jßatley,:Morley, and Ossett; the home of ' that trade where - >"'?>' are situated riamerous big mills, the con- ••• 6iraption of shoddy, has greatly decreased, and the .consumption of pure wool largely increased: .This 'is.',-certainly ,Va j" ' pleasant pheiioriionen, and' long may; it continue. , At-, the - same time the era--1 ployment of wool,on, a.large-scale in tho i 'tiroduction of such - huge quantities of , •. army fabrics has nil meant. the shift- ... .uis of increasing weights'of; raw'mater-. W... and with' the'big 'hoisiery, trade ' of ff . : -' .Leicester' haying.; fallen -infof' the : hands of West Biding spinners, : these facts fully account for the -balance of ; consumption being', transferred from tlie; Continent f. : 1 '; to -.the Home trade. If the,;big/hosiery ,industry'could bo 'reserved ■„ for- Home. spinners, 1 instead of .the. Continent tak- ;■: |ng 60 per cent, Australian supplies, :it will:fall in toHomo'jconsumers: ;. Tho writer.sete ho. possibility'of., any ser- -■ fous set-back-in: values, "either iii p«r- - • . inos or crossbreds. . TVhy should there . no? - We..are to-day suffering from■ a : shortage of merino' supolies,-and whilo' V; iVj: therq; .is. apparently sufficient; crossbred nool oil the market to; satisfy current .needs, if the Government, comes out with further large orders, which is certainly: probable, ,we can see all colonial crossbreds wanted, together, with the English v clip,- which has been reserved- by. the War Office for supplying its'own needs. , The outlook fot wool remains still most K satisfactory. . , -

Supplies' Available. r r ' l .:/ _ ' It is - rather. significant that there is available a larger quantity of wool, at y.;ythe : current series than has; obtained .sinoe. the first series this year, . there being to; hand lor the second series :i.\ ■ : 100,000 ibales, third series 69,500 bales, ;./• ..fourth; series 65,000 bales, and for the

fifth series 109,500 bales. There is nothing particularly new or significant in connection with _ the offerings. Of course, cvossbreds will figure by far the most prominently, and there should be n. good solection. New Zealand is well in evidence with 60,009 bales, and after this series, greasy fleece crossbreds will be conspicuous by their absonco until next January or February, Then there is Now South Wales, with an offoring of mostly merinos, amounting to 15,000 bales, but readers will gain full details of the wool availablo from tho following table:—• Tnf-nl

'About 6000 bales Punta. Arenas, 2000 bales •■ Falkland Islands, and 100 bales River Plato will be offered this series.

Another Rise in Merinos. The catalogues on Tuesday did not contain any strikingly good wools, the highest-priced greasy merinos, which came from Tasmania and sold at up to 2s. 3d., being tender, while of superfine quality. These wero by far the ■beat wools offered, (though West Australian sorts reao'hed Is. Hid. Various odd lots of New South /Wales wools sold up to'ls. 9d. or Is. 9Jd., which was a really magnificent price, considering that they would yield no more than 44 per cent, in many cases, They could only be called medium to good wools as recrards length, and it tv&b on such 6orfa as these that the advance was fully i\ per cent. On the best greasy merinos it could be put down at 5 per cent., this "being equivalent now to rather more than Id. ■ „ In scoureds, there was no noticeable buying for Russia, chiefly because the. selection was not there, nevertheless some lots of. Queensland wool sold at up to 3s. 4<1., best 6orts being about 5 per cent, above last series. Medium and inferior classes, particularly shabby, stained, and burry sorts, fared even better, being Tegularly to 10 per cent.. The course of crossbrtds was watched with considerable interest, largely due to the fact that the Government scheme for buying the English clip is interesting in an indirect way dealers in colonial sorts.' /It is well-laiown that during the interval in Bradford trade lias been very slow indeed in 48 s and lower qualities, and that may . have something to do with the ease in these sorts this week. The best greasy wools, of all qualities, in the lightest lots, sTiowed yerv little change from last sales, but if the condition was only average, or at. all heavy, prices suffered a good }d._ A nice line of scoured crossbreds was offered, which made about the same figures as a month agoj but slipes fared very much like greasy sorts, only theL high-est-priced ' wools being on a level with last ..sales'' rates.-.'; _ . I. . The best greasy oombing Capes werel 5 per cent, dearer, but • others were unchanged, and Eunta Arenas wools soldlargely in sympathy with INew Zeamnd sorts.

The Outlook. "With' reference to the outlook_Messrs. H. Dawson and Co. says:-' The requisitioning of the .English the Government liaa naturally oieated a new situation i>\ the wool. trade, and untu the now policy is systematised, and 1111111 it can beoome know when—and under what term/i and conditions—the wools will be available •to the consumer, the prevailing nervousness and lack of confidence is likely, to be continued. The greatest uncertainty obtains as regards values, and it would help materially to encourage business in colonial wools and in old stocks of English, if some knowledge could bo obtained as to the time and values at which consumers may hope to secure somo"of the new clip wools.

"The intensions of the Government appear to bo ft), that their requirements and those of the Allies shall be fully provided for, and at reasonable rates; (2) to hold sufficient reserve for contingencies; and (3) to be able to dispose later nf any, surplus'stocks . to ordinary consumera or to exporters through the usual channels at the prevailing market rates. "We understand also that some of the new clip wools may begin to be avail, ablo for Government contractors during August. "Meanwhile, tlio much-discussed 30 per cent, advance is creating anomalous distinctions, which thoroughly disturb the farmer, unlike any other trade, is exempt from the excess profits tax of 60 per cent. . Unfortunately, it militates seriously ( against the. maintenance of values in other sorts,, the owners of which aro taxed. It seems as if the simpler solu. tion might.be to make the farmer liable, along with other producers and traders, to.tho excess profits war tax, and then give him, to-day's full current values. ■ •"In the meantime, the industry has to meet the London auctions : and to' determino valucs in colonial sorts, despite the disturbed conditions which obtain. There is, however, abundant evidence of a stroug demand in merinos aud fine crossbreds.. Tlie position of medium and coarse grades is less secure, but the new Russian inquiries • will make a strong call for th.ese sorts. It is also generally accepted that many of the hosiery and khaki orders recently placed have still to l>e covered in raw material. "The great factor to be considered in

tho new situation is the state of supplies. It ia certain that machinery will be fully occupied for many months to come, and the stocks of colonial crossbreds available after this series cannot bo sufficiently large to cause any undue accumulation if tho statistical position is takeu into account. Tho total clip from New Zealand is estimated at about 540,000 bales. The quantities sold in London prior to this series amount to about 131,000 bales. In New Zealand about 325,000 bales have passed tho hammer, but some of tho latter may probably find their way to the Loudon auctions. It is evident oven in that case that tho supplies of New Zealand wool are likely to bo limited when the 59,000 bales available for the present series aro disposed of. Some 15,000 bajea bought on United States account aro still held in New Zealand. "The export section of the trade is still without any glimmer of hope, and if the'desirablo policy of conserving supplies for after-war emergencies is carried into effect, then it will have to exercise further patience. The South African market does not yet place any restriction on its exports to neutral countries (despite the scarcity and inflated values prevailing at Home), and considerable shipments aro still being made to tho United Kingdom."

Total New Forward- available arrivals, ings.. Old for Gross, direct, stock, sale. Bales. Bales. Bales. Bales. Sydney 00,100 46,000 ' 900 15,000 Queensland 13,500 5,500 1,000 9,000 Port Phillip 53,500 47,500 , 200 6,200 Adelaide. ... 1,500 1,000 500 Swan River 8,400 ■ 8,400 Tasmania ... 11,650 9,000 2,650 New' Zea- ■ land ......118,400 G4.000 4,900 59,300 Cape 85,250 28,500 1,500 8,250 302,300 201,500 8,500 109,300