Wool Production of Australasia.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 75, 25 September 1896, Page 3

Wool Production of Australasia.

Q The wool retnrns for the twelve months ended June 30th last for all the Australasian colonies are now to hand, and from an exchange we gather that there was on the whole a decrease of 118,926 bales, the shipments falling to 1,848,303 bales as compared with 1,981,229 for the pievious year. South Australia's clip increased from 17b\180 bales to 179,576 ; Tasmania's from 12 983 to 13,837 ; and Western Australia's from 21.058 to 24,570. But the whole of these increases amounted to only 12,496 bale*, while in tbe other four colonies there was a decrease of 131,422. The hewiest loss was in New South Wales, where the clip was reduced from 761,922 bales to 685,033, a decrease of 76,839 ; next came Qneensland with a fall from 146,999 to 119,789, a decrease of 27,210 ; Victoria was third on the list with a drop from 485,359 bales to 462,635, a decrease of 22,724 ; and New Zealand fourth with the modest reduction from 359,159 bales to 354,510, a small decrease of 4,649. Tbe shipments two years ago were 1,898,618 bales, and we have to go back three years to find a parallel to the production of this year. As nearly the whole loss is in merino wool it is strange to find that staple falling in price, while crossbreds, in which there has boen no corresponding loss, hold their own fairly well.