What a LonHnn Wool Sale is Like.

Manawatu Herald, 14 October 1899, Page 3

What a LonHnn Wool Sale is Like.

Mr R. M'Nab, who has been on tour for some time, has contributed to the Southern Standard a series of exceedingly interesting letters. In one ot these he describes the scene at a London wool sale as follows :— The July series of the wool sales commenced on Tuesday, and learning from the manager of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company that some of the Knapdale wool was for sale I looked in in the morning at the warehouses and found a number ot parcels of wool open for the inspection of the intending buyers, who were present in large numbers sampling and taking notes. The lots were set up and recorded exactly as with us in New Zealand, and nothing new was to be B een here. But it was at the auction in the afternoon that the sight was ; the wool exhibited in the morning is sold in the afternoon, the sales usually commencing at 4 P-m., at the wool exchange in- Coleman-street. Jacomb was the salesman on Tuesday, and on the stage on each siJe clerks recorded, with the auctioneer himself, the result of the bidding. Arranged in the amphitheatre, like a medical operating room, sat the buyers, who had already ballotted for places. Behind sat those interested in the trade. At 4 ?•*•«» conditions were read, and the fun became fast and furious. The selling of wool has often been the subject ot dissatisfied criticism on the part.ofvendors, so I will explain it. "Lot 1, says the salesman, and immediately there is a howl from the intending purchasers. Two, three, four, and as majiy

as ten rise in their seats and frantically gesticulate towards the auctioneer, tl.eir gesticulations being aiied by sheets of* foolscap, pens, and pencils, and the scene is a perfect chaos." "Eight and a half," says jacomb, pointing to one of the howling mass, and all sit down and there is a calm. The auctioneer and his clerks fill in their catalogues the buyer's name and price, and while this has been done we have the same frantic shouts and the same chaos. Having completed- the entry the broker looks up at the howling crowd, points his pencil n : : "rte\ and says " Seven." And so on, ' ,by : lot, two or even three a minute without j a word from the auctioneer but the price. After this has gone on for somo little time one begins to see the method underlying the system. While the entry" of one purchase is being made, the buyers are running one another tip for' the next lot, each buyer as he is outbid sitting down or lowering his hand, and by the time the broker looks up there are the last men all howling out the limit price. One "catches" the broker's eye, and the contest is over ; and so successive lots are disposed of. Now and again the broker would not detect his man, and you would hear " Seven and a half; whose bid?" But these questions were few and far between, and amidst a howling mass, where the uninitiated could not distinguish any particular price mentioned, the whole three would suddenly look in one way, and a bidder would be named. No " going, going, gone" at these sales ; no time for third and last time ; it is all " gone" at the London sales, and does not permit of the word being said even, j