Production and Consignment of Wool.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 253, 30 April 1897, Page 2

Production and Consignment of Wool.

1 ■ 0 ' ' • (From London reports received by the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Company.) The total quantity of raw wool available for consumption last year, exclusive of old stocks, was 2,263,000,0001 b, against 2,342,000,0001 biv the preceding year. There was a decrease of 44,000,0001 bin the Australasian, of 22,000,0001 bin the United States production, and of 9,000,0001 bin the re« ceipts of sundry wools, while the River Plate and Cape imports were 25,000,0001 b and 12,000,0001 b larger respectively. The remainder of the difference: in the imports of Australasian wool was due to late shipments at the end of 1894, and very quick shipments at the end of 1895, which had made the receipts for the calendar year 1895 much larger than the season's production. There was a regular expansion, but the increase during the last six years was certainly larger than in previous decades. Since the period 1885-7 the increase in the supplies has amounted to as much as 20 per cent, or allowing for the regular addition to population, to 8£ per cent. The quantity left for consumption in North America experienced a very considerable reduction last year, much greater than could have been expected, and the decrease in the real consumption was still greater. The imports i of manufactures were also much smaller, while the stocks of raw wool carried forward were larger than at the end of 1895. During the tbreo years 1885-7, the quantity of raw wool available in North America was 441 million lbs on the average, during the last three years it was 481,000,000 lbs sbowiug an in crease of only 9 per cent, while the quantities left for European consumption have risen during the same period from 1,420, (average of 1885 7) to 1,791,000,000 lbs, (average of 1894 96), or as 26 per cent. The total supply of wool during the present year will probably not show any material change.