OLD WOOL

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1931, Page 7

OLD WOOL

A BIG PROBLEM. Old "Wool has become a problem in the North Island' this year, both the Auckland and Wellington sines having been adversely affected by the proportion ottered. At the Wellington sale fully 60 per cent of the ottering was old wool, and it was found very difficult to get rid of at anything like, reasonable prices. In normal years there is little old wool offered, and the small amount on hand is generally quitted without distinction from the new clip, the demand being sufficient to absorb the okl wool with the new. This season, North Island brokers have found themselves with an abnormally large amount of old wool on hand, and also a limited demand. Many buyers also were confined by their principals to. new wool, and did not even take the trouble to value the old wool in the stores.

A Wellington syndicate has set about buying old wool, and has found that when it is scoured, repacked, and rebranded, it is not inferior to other scoured wool. The action of the syndicate has been watched with interest by many holders of old wool, and it is reported that the scouring works at Petone are being kept busy.

Agents and brokers in Canterbury last season tried to influence every client to get rid of his wool, no matter at what price, realising that a large carry-over of old wool would have u bad effect on the sales this year. This policy was adopted by the majority of farmers, mu] the consequence is that there is little held over wool in Cain terhury this year. The stores are pran-_ ideally bare of old wool, but any nrcurate estimate of the amount is difficult to arrive at, because there is no way of finding out how much is held by farmers in their own woolslieds. • It is believed that the amount is not large. In contrast with the 60 per cent offered at the Wellington sale, the proportion of old wool offered at the first. Christchurch sale last week was under 10 per cent. It was mainly half-bred, and this fact, combined with its comparative scarcity, made it as readily saleable as the new clip. Brokers at any rate were unable to detect any differentiation against old wool at the sale. Scouring Normal. No scheme such as that being carried out in Wellington has been started here, and no more than the normal amount of scoured wool is being offered or bought. A certain amount of the wool withdrawn from the local sales last year was shipped to England, but few farmers are in a position to undertake the disposal of their clips on their own account. Fewer than ever will he able to do so this year, when the need for ready money will be more acute. Brokers in Canterbury are again urging their clients to sell, and the experience in Wellington and Auckland should lend '.point to tlieir argument. The hold-over for the whole of New Zealand, estimated both by the Woolbrokers’ Association and hv Dalgety and Co., Ltd., was 181.000 hales at the beginning of this season. Little of this was held in the South Island. Local brokers are of the opinion that a good deni of the old wool offered at the Wellington and Auckland sales was not only old, but was wool rejected l as t year on account of seediness, dirt, or some other fault.