MARKETS.

Patea Mail, 12 February 1881, Page 4

MARKETS.

HAWKE.S BAY RAM FAIR. The Hawke’s Bay Mercury reporting on the Ram Fair, says :—lf any doubts had been entertained as the buoyancy of the wool growing industry in Hawke’s Bay they must have been completely dissipated by the results of the ram fair at Hastings. The prices realised surpassed expectations and even inferior sheep found buyers that twelve months ago would have been consigned to the melting pots. After giving reasons for the depression at the 1880 fair the cause of the rise in values are thus stated :—ln the first place, the rise in the London wool market in the early part of 1880, in which the Hawke’s Bay clip so largely participated, put an entirely different aspect on the prospects of growers. Instead of having to refund any portion of moneys advanced on their clip, almost without an exception they had to receive an additional sum. This state of things was not confined to this province, but extended throughout the colony, thereby creating markets for our surplus stock in the comparatively newly-settled country on the West Coast, and in the understocked lands lying to the north of Poverty Bay. We are, probably, under the mark when we say that fully 70,000 sheep have been exported from Hawke’s Bay during the last ten months, while the exportation of cattle has also greatly revived during the same period. These, then, are the causes of the brisk business done at the late ram fair—first, the rise in wool, leading to the second, the creation of live stock markets outside the province, the result being that sheep-farmers are in a position to spend money upon the improvement of their flocks.