£25 a Bale

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 66, 5 April 1937, Page 8

£25 a Bale

Prei«« Aiwrvrinttr,*. -»

FARMERS REJOICE AT WELLINGTON February Weakness , Recovered RATES COMPARED

CBy Tpleffranh -

/ WELLINGTON, Last Night. , Prices at the fourth Wellington wool stale on Saturday reached tho peak oi' ihe 1936-37 season. The auction was a lemaikably good one and made a great finish. |o the most saccessfui season since 1929. Farmers whose wool had beea leld over for this sale have every *rea*oiL to congratulate themselves 011 tho flnancial xesult o£ Saturday 'a aaie which xeturned them in most cases from 3d to ,4d pex 1b, moxe thau at the February aale. Following the January auction at; •Wellington at which pj»ces touched a high level the rnaxket showed a temporary weakness in mid-February, but iquickly xecovered as was ahown at subeequent saies elsewhere. On Saturday, -prices more than xegained the February tlecline and actually improved on those jof January. It is estimated that the wool sold on Saturday was worth from £25 to £26;'

per bale and that the gross proceeds. would amount approximately to £750,000. The Wellington saies this seai»on will xeturn a total of about j£2,750,000 compared with £1,825,000 for jjthe five saies held in 1935-36, an in•erease of nearly £1,000,000. On the jsame basis it is calculated that tho gross proceeds of all the wool saies held jin the Dominion this season will return ]«t least £18,000,000 against £10,000,000 jfor 1935-36. The offering on Saturday totalled {aeaxly 29,000 bales and comprised mainjly good to average crossbreds with a ■ proportion of worse back-country and Ibnsh-stained wooL The quality, how>ever, was much better than is usual for ithe finel sale due to the inclusion of •many good clips held over from previous auctions. The catalogues. also included .a few Merinos, Southdowns, halfbreds Land some good lambs, There was a completely full bench of ; ibuyers representative of every section' •f the trade, many having large orders to fill for overseas interests. Oomp'otijtion was very keen and at times excited anil buying was widely epread. It was clear that there was a strong demand for wool of all classes, particularly for crossbreds, for which many 1 buyers uppeared to have very elastic limits. Actually very few lines of crossbreds sold for less than 18d, a figure that was almost monotonously called throughout the day. Even on the strength of the market brokers had been conseryative in their valuations and these wero frequently exceeded in the saies by good . margins with the result tliat the pasaings at auction were negligible. Several brokers made 100 per cent. clearance of their catalogues at auction and at the end of the sale the total passings were only 300 bales and inquiries made late Saturday night revealed that practically all .these had been quitted af ter the close of the auction.. Compared with the February rates at Wellington Saturday '* prices showed an advance of from 3d to 4d -for all classes. • Crossbreds and finer wools were better by from 2d to 3d, lambs* wool was fully 2d up as compared with recent saies elsewhere, fine sorts sold at par to i& better, crossbreds were $d jbo $d higher.' Yorkshire and' the Continent were the principal buyefs, but some largc orders for America were also filled. Japan was not an important factor iu the market. A xemarkable f eature of the sale was the high prices paid for average to coarse crossbreds which comprised the bulk of the offering. In . very manv cases lower grades brought even higher prices than first grades of the same clip. For example, in one clip four b'aies of fine erossbred made 18$d, and the whoie six bales of medium and six bales of coarse erossbred sold for 18 Jd. Iu an-' other case 18 bales of A ewes made 18Jd and £3 bales of B ewes 18$d, four bales of A erossbred and nine bales of B erossbred made 18$ d aud eight bales oi erossbred lSJd. In yet another clip four bales of Southdown' sold for 19$d, while six bales of B erossbred made 18$d and four bales of erossbred 19d. .One farmer xeceived 18$d ior 14 bales of A erossbred, 19d for 34 bales of B erossbred and 19$d for 10 bales of O erossbred. This tendency was • evident nght throughout the sale and the examples quoted could be multiplied many times. Ferhaps the most outstanding case iwas a clip in which 18£d was paid for jfour bales of A erossbred ewes, 18$d for '13 bales of B ewes and the remarkable • price of 20d for 23 bales of C ewes, 20 bales of D ewes (WLTS) making 18$d. One farmer had the pleasure of seeing 2ia paid for four bales of A erossbred hogget, 20$d for 12 bales of A ewes, J9$d for six bales B ewes and 15$d for four bales of pieces. The xise in prices during the last- fewweeks is. shown by the fact that wool , passed in at the February sale at Wellington at 13$d and 13$d sold on .Saturday for 18$d. Oue line of 24 bales of A 'pieces passed in in February at I2$d iwas sold for 16d and eight bales of medium hogget passed at 13$d- made 19$d. Tho cfficial rapge of prices is as follows : —

• Feb. 19 April 3. . Merinb — d. . * d. d. . d. Super — td — — ' to — Average 16 to 19$ 18 to 21$ Inferior ...... 14 to 15$ — to 15$ Fine halfbred, 56/58 — • Super — to — •. 21 to 23$ Average ...... 16$ to 19 18$ to 20$ inferior ...... 13$ to 16 15- to 18$

Medium halfbred, 50/56 — Super — to 19$ 21 to 22 Average 15$ to 19 17 to 20$ Inferior 13$ to 14 17 to 18$ Extra fine crossbred, 48/50 — Super 16$ to 18$ 19 to 21$ Average 15, to 17$ 18 to 20$ Inferior 14 to 14$ 15 to 18$ Fine crossbred, 46/48— Super 16 to 18$ 19$ to 21 Averagie 14$ to 16$ 18 to 19$ Inferior 13 to 14$ 15 to 18$ Medium crossbred, 44/46 — Super ...... 16$ to 18$ 19 to 19$ Average 14$ to 16 18 to 19$ Inferior 13 to 14 15 to 18$ Coarse crossbred, 40/44 — Super ...... 16 to 18$ 18$ to 21$ Average 14$ to 16$ 18 to 19 Inferior 13$ to 14$ 16$ to 18 Low crossbred, 36/40 — Super 16$ to 17$ «— to 20 Average ....... 15$ to 17$ 18$ to 19$ Inferior — to 14$ 17 to 18 Hoggets — 48/50 15$ to 17$ 16$ to 20$ Fine, 46/48 ... 15$ to 17$ 10$ to 20$ Medium 44/46 14$ to 17 18$ to 19$ Coarse, 40/44 14 to 1-5$ — to — Low, 36/40 ... — to 17$ 18$ to 19$ Lambs — Down, 50/66 18 to 19$ 16$ to 21$ Fine, 44/50 ... 16 to 19$ 16$ to 20$ Medium 40/44 14$ to 15$ 16 to 19 Seedy and inf. 10$ to 14 10$ to 15 Bellies and pieces — Merino : Good to super 14$ to 15$ 14$ to 17$ Low to med. 12$ to 13$ 12$ to 14$ Halfbred ;

uooa to super Jl$ to 14$ 15 to 18 Low to med. 10$ to 11$ 11 to 14^ Crossbred : Good to euper 11$ to 14$ 14$ to 18 Low to med. 9$ to 12$ 10$ to 14$ Crutchings — Med. to good 13 to 16$ 13 to I6i Inf. to seedy 9$ to 11 9$ to 13 Locks — Merino ...... — to — — to 10$ Halfbred to — — to 9 Crossbred ... 8$ to 9$ 8 to llj