ENGLISH WOOL SALE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 16, 17 October 1879, Page 2

ENGLISH WOOL SALE.

The New Zealand Lonn ; ncl Memintile Agency Conipiiny'n Circular of August 29 thus rcfer3 to tlio third series wool sales for 1879. which opened on August 12. On the first nisrht there w;is a lirjro nttendnnco of Homo and Foreign buyers, bo:h sections being well represented. Competition was regular nnd fairly animated, at rates which, for Merino Wool, exhibited a maintenance of the average values current in the May June sales. This description of wool, both washed and greasy, with few exceptions, was the subject of good demand, the slight weakness occasionally noticeable in »the biddings being" almost ■wholly confined to inferior parcels of clothing sorts. Cro^s-breds of fine quality, though not perhaps quotable at the full rates of last series, were still in request ; but the lower grades showed a decline of from £d to Id per lb., in sympathy with the depreciated value of our homegrown wool, which is in large supply. On the following night opening rates were found to rule with little or no change. Some scoured capes, however, which were not represented in first evening's catalogue, wore sold at about id por )b. lower than their closing piices at la9t series. As tho sales have progressed the decline in the lower qualities of cross-bred has become more distinctly marked, and it may now be called fully Id per lb. The finer descriptions of this produce, of which the supply is relatively moderate; havo shared in the raduction, but not to the same extent. Good meriuo combing wools exhibit the least depreciation, finding buyers ar. rates only slightly below those of the opening day. On the other hand Adelaide greasy, Sydney washed fleece, and inferior Bcoured wool? have given way on an average to the extent of Id perlb. Purchasers for foreign account have up to this date been in the proportion of 60 to 65 pc. 1 cent of the total quantity offered. In the earlier sales of the year these were on a considerably larger scale, and now that the contraction is not met by an improvement in the Home detuund, the elements of weakneßS in tho market may po<sibly become more pronounced as the sales proceed. It had been hoped that with >in average yield of cereal produce in this country a niuehneeded stimulus would have been given to business generally, under the influence of which woollen manufacturing interests might have been favorably promoted ; but from the latest reports from the agricultural districts it is now almost beyond doubt. that those expectations must be considerably modified or altogether abandoned. It is to be feared that the harvest in other graingrowing countries of Western Europe is likely to prove almost as unsatisfaoloiy as our own, an eventuality which cannot fail to have a further prejudicial effect upon the prospects of the wool market. On the other hand it must not be forgotten that wools have thus far been very freely catalogued, and as a considerable quantity has now passed the hammer, those buyers who hitherto have held aloof in the hope of operating on more fovorable terms may. during the second half of the sale, embrace tho opportunity afforded by replenishing rheir stocks. The total quantity catalogued to date is 134,553 bales, of which 12o,lo» rales have been sold.