RE WOOL PRICES
Sir,—Tho officers of tho Imperial Supplies Department, in remarking upon •the letter of a Hawke's Bay farmer, commenting upon tho appraisement placed by them upon his wool, claim that tho exact value of each grade and quality is extended to its equivalent in cUan, scourod wool "based upon a Co per cent. ; advance on pre-war prices." They, however, omit to state that tho Order-in-Council, which they cannot depart from, is erroneously fixed upon Dominion auction prices for 191314 clip, which that year wore iusfc 1 nbout 23 to 39 per cent, lower than London auction prices, less charges, i for the same wool, and which repre-1 sents profits made by wool speculators on most of their purchases that year.. The values now being placed by' the Departmental officers are therefore a 55 per cent, increase on the Dominion.' price of 9d. to Is. per lb. instead of 55 per cent, on Is. to Is. 3d., which' those who wisely shipped their wool London received, and represent the shortage of £8.300,000 already shown 1 in the value of last year's commandeer- J ed wool, and which will recur every, year while the commandeer is in force, and until the blunder is rectified. This morning's paper quotes top Australasian price for some scoured monno pieces and fleeces from North Canter- > bun- at 3s. 4d. and 3s. 6£d. per lb. " It may not be generally known that,, scoured merino from Otago, sold at auction in London, towards the closo of last year, or beginning of 1917, afe 4s. sd. per lb., wliile the self-same wool, in the grease, was commandeered at Iβ. 2d. per lb. about the same time this year in tho Dominion. The Imperial authorities must have experienced a .pleasant surprise when the appraisements, based upon Dominion prices, reached them, as they would have no record of Dominion speculative prices, and would necessarily be baeing their offers on London average values for 1913-14 clip quoted above, Tho prices I have mentioned are' those current for average wools, botli here and at Home, not special lines, and in order to show the uninitiated the discrepancy or blunder I am showing the 55 per cent, advance on Dominion and, London prices:— . , Dominion price; 9d. to Is., plus 55 per cent., equals Iβ. 2d. to is. 6id. London price, la. to Is. 3d., plus 55* per cent., "eauals Is. 6Jd. to Is. ll}d. • This deficiency of about 4d. per lb. on the 1916-17 clip accounts for the shortage of £3,300,000. on the total ralue, lately announced .by the Premier, and judging by prices'for this season's wool and the 3sd, per lb. received 'by your Hawke's Bay correspondent for his crjitchjngs, an increased shortage is inevitable. Is it not possible for the Premier to . correct such, a far-reaching mistake ou the pait of the locum tenensp—l am, etc., AGRICOLA.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19171229.2.45.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 81, 29 December 1917, Page 8
Word count
Tapeke kupu
477RE WOOL PRICES Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 81, 29 December 1917, Page 8
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.