THE WOOL MARKET.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 80, 20 May 1902, Page 4

THE WOOL MARKET.

Wednesday’s Wellington Post says : -—The third of the series of London wool sales, which began last week, has seen a further advance in values, and crossbred wool shows to advantage. The movements in crossbred wool since the commencement of the year are as under:— First sale, advance 5 to 10 per cent. Second sale, advance 5 to 10 per cent. Third sale, advance 5 to 10 per cent. Thus, since the close of the December sales there has been a recovery of 15 to 30 per cent., which is very satisfactory. Those farrnt rs who have heavy reclamations to meet on last year’s clip will be cheered by the present condition of the wool market. Present prices mean a substantial gain, and should enable growers to easily liquidate their liabilities to the wool brokers. There is still very much leeway to be made up in prices, and this may be seen in the realisation of the Brancepeth clip, which at the May sales of last year realised 6d per lb, while the same brand sold a few days ago fetched per lb. It will be seen from this that notwithstanding the steady improvement valnes continue very low. The demand for crossbreds appear to be active, while merino is also fully supported ; the keenness of the demand may be noted in the fact that already out of 57,427 bales catalogued all but 879 bales have been sold. The textile industry in Europe and North America is in a very healthy condition, but what is of special interest to New Zealand wo >lgrowers is the fact that coarse and medium wools are coming into favour. The “all-wool” textures are being made up with more of the genuine art cle in them, and the honest character of the fabrics is no doubt forcing them into favour with, consumers. The position of crossbi-ed wool is satisfactory, and is likely to remain so.