AUSTRALIAN WOOL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20102, 23 November 1939, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN WOOL

APPRAISED PRICES BENEFIT TO INDUSTRY “COUNTING BLESSINGS” SYDNEY, Nov. 11. The distribution of the proceeds from Sydney appraisement No. 2 were made this week and covered 50,000 bales. After deducting the retention money, approximately £1,650,000 already lias been made available for the wool appraised in Sydney. By the Christmas recess it is expected that Australian appraisements will total .1,440,000 bales, the proceeds for which will amount to well over £20,000,000.

Amidst a mixture of complaint and satisfaction regarding the prices at which wool is being appraised, the fact remains that the industry and the nation are decidedly better off than, if the contract with the British Government had not been made.

The experiences after the outbreak of war in 1914 are worth recalling, when only partially successful efforts to conduct auctions were made. In Sydney from July 1 to early November that year, only 33,452 bales were sold, compared with 228,000 bales appraised to last Monday. During the whole of the 1914-15 season Sydney sales totalled 549,955 bales, 230,000 bales less than for the previous selling year, which realised £l2 10s per bale greasy and scoured. The average price per Jb obtained for greasy wool was Bgd. Because of the lack of demand for them, very faulty wools could not be sold.

“Some Cause for Complaint” The dissatisfaction with appraised prices lor faulty wools expressed by many growers indicates that some cause for complaint may exist in the range of figures for particular types. The secrecy attached to the table of limits and the mass of regulations debarring growers from information have tended in some quarters to shake confidence in the scheme.

Despite considered inequalities and harassing regulations, those concerned in the sheep industry and the nation as a whole have reason to "count their blessings” in regard to the wool transaction. Compared with wheat, wool is “in clover.” Compared with 1914-15, the first year of the previous war, the industry is in an assured position against the precarious situation which then existed, both in respect to prices and the ability to sell the clip.

Higher Than Expected The figure at which the wool is sold is higher than the average rate that looked probable prior to the outbreak of the war. Money for appraisements is being distributed regularly each week. The scheme has decidedly more merits than disadvantages, but the former are largely overlooked. Is not consideration of them worth while? The effects of the stability in wool prices in conjunction with the arrangements made for the export of lamb and mutton to the United Kingdom. and the generally favourable season, arc evident in a revival in I lie store stock market. Young breeding ewes have been in very keen demand. Many lines of young crossbred ewes have been sold at 80s and over. Young wethers off' shears have changed hands at from 15s to 17s. with some sales in the north-west well above those figures. The transactions with the British Government, therefore. have increased the asset values of lhe sheep industry.