The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 427, 21 May 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1879.

The cable brings news of far greater practical importance,to these colonies, than the announcement that the British had taken Cabal, or that Cetewayo’s power was broken, would be. It brings news of a rise in the price of wool. It is true the rise is only a penny per pound, but that moans considerably more than a million pounds sterling per annum to Australasia) and is an additional ten shillings per head to the gross income of the population of the colonies. To Now Zealand alone, Id per lb represents move than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. There has, as many have good reason to know, been a steady decline in the price of Wool ever since 1572, when it was excessively high. The import into the United Kingdom in that year, averaged £26 10s per bale. In ’73, the average was £24 ss. In each of the following years the average price per bale fell £l. For ’76, ’77, and ’7B, the average was in each year £lB 15s, a fall of no less than £7 15s per bale since 1872. If the clip of ’77 could have been sold for the price obtained in ’72, Australasia would have received £6,400,000 more than it did. Many expected that the average price for ’7B would be lower than that for the two preceding years ; but as the prices for the first eight months showed a slight improvement, the fall at the end of the year, winch brought prices down ten per cent, below what they were at the end of ’77, did not result in a lower average for the whole year. The present improvement is the more satisfactory, because it is in a sort that lias suffered most neglect of late. The Economist says of the year ’7B, “ The special features to be mentioned are the disproportionately high range of prices of superfine wools in the early part of the year, and the entire neglect of the same sorts towards its close; the strong but short-lived rise of scoured wools in August, and the ever increasing neglect of cross-breds, which have gradually dropped to as low a priced level as has been known for the last twenty years.” The circular of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company stated (March 27, ’79) that “ cross-breds, especially thee oarser sorts, whether scoured, washed, or greasy, have declined during the last twelve mouths from 20 to 25 per cent.” It is in the cross-breds that the improvement is reported. The above extracts will show that there was plenty of room for it, Now that the political dangers, which were supposed to influence the prices a year ago, have passed away, it is to be hoped that the improvement will be permanent, and prove only to be a foretaste of the good times coming. It must not, however, be expected that the general rise in wool prices will bo at all sudden. In ’7B there were nearly fifty thousand bales less imported into the United Kingdom than in ’77. This decrease, nearly 4 per cent., was owing to “ droughts and inundations.” It was expected in the colonies that it would exercise a steadying influence on the market; but its effect was neutralised by the large stock of old wool that had been held over from the preceding year. In fact, notwithstanding the decrease in production, the available quantity was greater in ’7B than in ’77. There will probably bo a similar glut in the market for a year or two, at least, as in the present depression there are sure to bo large quantities held over, which will help to make the rise gradual when it sets in.