Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 18, 1900. Wool.

Manawatu Herald, 18 December 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 18, 1900. Wool.

* The position of wool-growers is anything but a pleasant one just now, and we believe the lowest prices ever touched have been obtained during the last year. We know of small clips which were superior to some sold at the January sales in Wellington, having been sent to London were they realised less and with the charges to be borne, would mean to the owner almost twopence a pound deficit. Prices are no better this year, but are nearly three halfpence lower than last year, so that the men who depend on their wool helping them along are' in an unfortunate position, but not so bad as they might have been had not frozen ! mutton helped up the price of sheep. The question that will arise for the owners of sheep will be the class of stock they must breed — for wool, or for mutton ? and it is one that will require very grave consideration on their part, as, though mutton is at a good price now, there are so many competitors for the London market that there is no certainty how soon values may not fall. As regards wool there appears to have been a vast over-production of woollen goods and a writer in the " National Review " states that this is so in Germany, and to overcome the depression the manufacturers there have entered into an agreement to reduce their output by twenty per cent. This assertion enables us to estimate the prospect of our main export and the outlook is not cheering. If manufacturers of wool have been over producing, we, in this colony have also been doing so, as in 1890 we exported 102,522,185 pounds of wool, and in 1900 we exported 144,829,515 I pounds of wool and have suffered in cash for it, as for though during the ten years the increase in weight has been 41.27 yet in cash value the increase has only been 17.85. An export of a product like wool which is valued close on five million pounds sterling is one we are all deeply interested in, and the rise and fall in its value is one of vast importance to the success of the colony.