WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

WOOL POSITION AND . OUTLOOK

(Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, November. 24. Two wool sales will be held on Wedday, November. 26, which,. will engage the attention of the people of New Zealand and cause some consternation. The sixth and' closing series of London wool sales for 1930 will begin on the evening of that date, and on the same day the first of the. New Zealand .wool sales for the season 1930-31 will be‘held at Auckland. Dealing ’first with the sale at Auckland it is hardly probable that the brokers in the North can stage the full catalogue permitted by the New Zealand wool - committee. For that matter it is riot ' thought" likely that’full'catalogues will be available at any selling centre until well on into next month. The season appears to be a month later and shearing has been retarded by inclement weather. If. however, there is some improvement during the next few days the catalogues will be fairly large but not up to the limit. The wool usually offered at Auckland is mostly . coarse and inferior, what a waolbroker describes as ‘'Cookies’ lots”: Auckland does produce some super crossbreds, or what is known as “American style” wool, but the quantity is not much. At the Auckland sale wool will show a decline of 10 to 15 per cent on last season’s closing rates, and growers must accustom themselves to hearing.bids of 5d to 6Jd for crossbred fleece wool for some wools there will probably., be no bid at all. It is difficult to say what bellies, pieces, locks and crutchings will realise, but the prices are certain to be very small. Woolbuyers from overseas have come to buy at a price and that price is admitted to he much lowei than it was last, season. At the London wool’sales prices’are expected to show a recession of 10 pei cent on last sale, which in itself re-, corded lower prices than at the previous sale. A Bradford correspondent writing in mid-October said: “Crossbreds are still a very .disappointing proposition indeed. Average 46’s carded can be bought at 12d. Lower qualities of prepareds are selling at' about the same price, and what with the reasonable offers made in South American crossbreds and the position as .regards supplies in New Zealand wools it is by no means certain that still lower prices will not be recorded. Disturbing reports are received from the Continent, these indicating the risks involved in selling tons and vams,in* Germany, and also at Home the financial position of

many firms is a source of nnxietv. tj'Noils ami wastes are still di’afirming but > though botany qualities seem verv chean there is not eneouro"em OTl t to put biff ofiant't’ps ir+c c + od.-. Virtually all desel’ipt'ons of Fnel ,o h flepce are iu favour of tba buyer, fhpso bein nr forced down bv tb° persistent d«~v cline in n-opphred*:. pi-m wools are also in a like posit-mu. for worsted yarns nr~ undereroine further revision. hut • this does net a one nr to he helping pninnor.q in t.ho « l ighfp^ + .. fierious complaint o nM heinc mode

about delevs iu takic- nn ©nrit-metc

and manufacturers! perpiot. jn their *• hand-to-mioutb bnv'nnr pnlmv. which has hitherto kept the omul ovment, of mnebinerv verv much below normal. In the above rernni'bs! we get n very good idea of the o+.n + n of the vocl ; market, and on Tuesday its men pi"" will be brought !)pme t,o ys. The people as a whole must look this matter in the face and endeavour to a unreel ate

the seriousness of its import. We know f that dairv produce is depressed: Better and cheese are selling; at below the pre-war level, and who would have been bold enough «' short twelve month's n?ro to predict that butter would be selling at 110 s, and it mev go for the market is reported weak. The dairv farmers have a full realisation of the state of th« for' fh P milk cheques are very much lower than they

, have been accustomed to receive. The .woolerowers in the next few months will find their cheques are

smaller in amounts. The meat cheques this season will also be smaller for the price of lamb will be Ud to 2d lower. Let us try to focus the position for the purpose of drawing attention to its seriousness and the need for sound economic action being taken to meet the situation: Milk cheques, lower wool cheques, smaller meat cheques, very small. This is compared with the past season. These three items with the by products constitute 90 per cent, of our exports. They will in the aggregate bring us in very much less money than in the past season and out of this contracted supply of funds the workers under the protection of the Arbitration Couit insist on getting the full sum awarded them by the Court, and the authorities stand bv and urge us to be cnreful and optimistic and to indulge in sunshine talk. We do not want talk but action of an economic character and sound. Such action would generate confidence, and with confidence optimism would be automatic.