WOOL AND WOOL MARKETS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4818, 31 August 1876, Page 3

WOOL AND WOOL MARKETS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —Late advices-,f?pm Home have shown that not only had wool fallen to a very great extent, some 3ft percent, below prices of the previous year, but also' that it was likely to continue to fall. Later nows followed of a rise, which may probably however be regarded as a temporary one only. One gathers from the Home papers and tho reports of sales that tho principal reasons for the low prices given were the state of the Eastern question. . The great depression which has taken place since May, 1875, in foreign stocks has caused the purchasing power of tho country to become crippled and business bad in the manufacturing districts. The extraordinarily large supply of the raw material—the amount of wool grown every year is enormously on thennereaso. For instance, the imports into great Britain in 1875, of foreign and colonial wools, showed an increase of 22,000,0001b5. over those of 1874; and to show how wool-growing has increased in New Zealand, it may be quoted that in 1851 tho number of sheep was rather over 200,000, and in 1874 over 11,500,000. If tho amount of wool grown goes on increasing

for a few more years at the rate it has for the last ten, and" unless other-markets are provided for our wools, it is certain that the growers will find it anything but a paying.industry; and.it will therefore be to.tbe interest of our sheepfarmers, if it is not so already, to look for other markets in addition' to . those they now have to depend on,. It is a matter: of surprise that no very determined effort has been made to open up markets for the raw material in China and to establish manufactories there—a country with a population of over four hundred millions of inhabitants. On this subject the remarks, of a writer in the Melbourne Argus of some time back bear reiteration. He says“ Could we get qur wools to be more largely used in America or introduced into China, we would be in a great measure independent of the London market, especially in the event of a general European war; instead of having our wool burnt and sunk along with the ships which carried it, or having it lying rotting in our ports, many a shipload could safely reach China. There is no other country so exactly suited to relieve us of our staple commodity. . . . . Once get the notion introduced of manufacturing woollen goods among them, and as a natural consequence of the unity of government, laws, language, and religion, it would spread with unexampled rapidity.” ; Mr. Samuel Mossman, • late editor’of the North China Herald, says “The Northern provinces of China are remarkable alike for the great heat of their summers and the extreme cold of their winters. As the Chinese have no fires in their dwellings for the purposes of bodily warmth, the poorer classes depend entirely bn their cotton-quilted dresses, which impart a great degree of heat to the wearer. This, however, at the best, is' but a, cumbrous style of dress, which, there is. no doubt, would be discarded if they had wool within their reach.”

We hear much nowadays about the development of our resources and the encouragement of local industries. By all means let us develops the one and encourage the other, but let us not lose sight of the danger of swamping the markets. Wool is the product the growth and sale of which is of the highest interest to the country, it being our mainstay. What would become of us if wool were only saleable at such prices as to render it unprofitable of production to the grower ? I think, therefore, that it is to the interest of the colony, at any rate of the wool-growing and mercantile community, that attention should be directed to this subject offresh markets for our wools. And seeing that we have of late been ahead of other Australian colonies in matters of enterprise, why not in this matter also ?—I am, &c,, Merino.