REDUCED WOOL PRICES

Shannon News, 19 December 1924, Page 4

REDUCED WOOL PRICES

WEAKNESS IN PRESENT SYSTEM, The result of the second Napier wool sale of the season will come as somewhat of an unpleasant surprise to the sheepfarmers of the Dominion. Although many farmers considered the recent prices to be too good to last, the general opinion appeared to that a set-back in values need not be feared for sevoral months at least.

The figures realised in Napier on Wed. nesday last are certainly still very Satisfactory, but what in feared is the downward tendency of prices. There seems to be, however, no real cause for any serious alarm: at the prosent moment. Cable reports from Sydney contain the news, that competition is still keen and market firm, and that all grades' of crossbreds are making full late rates. Reports of practically; the same purport comes from the London wool sales which are in progress at the present time.' ■ N.Z. Values Above London Parity. There is just one thing, however, that New Zealand woolgrowers must remember, and that is that some of the buyers evidently overreached themselves at the opening sales of the New Zealand season and paid prices above London rates. The London wool sales, which started a few days after the Wellington sale, did» not quite come up to the Wellington prices and this adjustment is no doubt taking place at present. Another question, which New Zealand wool growers will have to seriously consider sooner or later, is the present system of holding sales and marketing our annual clip. Judging i by the ways and means producers are adopting in disposing: of their wool, one might be lead to believe that it was a highly perishable article. In fact the methods of holding sales compares very unfavourably with tfie methods of disposing of our butter and cheese. •

100,000 Bales A Month. During-four months of the year we are forcing something like 400,000 bales of wool through the local auction sales, ■ which in itself cannot be in the best interest of the industry. Buyers are- rushing from one end of the country to the other, and are hardly given sufficient time to properly examine the various clips, while the sales themselves are rushed through at a tremendous pace. The next Wellington wool sale, for instance, consisting of 32,222 bales, will start at 8 p.m. on Saturday and most likely last till midnight and be resumed at 8 a.m. on Monday. The Napier sale just ended disposed of 36,000 bales in record time. With a few hours selling the night before the whole of the wool was disposed of, the following day. In Auckland, just prior to Napier, 18,000 bales were disposed of in practically one day. However the flush of the season is not until next month and the above quantities will be very much increased. Why all this -haste and bustle? The buyer is kept under a continuous pressure and is hardly given breathing time. Besides ’ the. actual buying there' is the examination of wool which to him is even more important than the sale itself. There is, in addition, the question of arranging shipments and finance, all of which, affect hia buying capacity.

.New System Wanted. It is high time New Zealand .woolgrowers and wool-brokers gave this question their earnest consideration. The London woolsales in progress, at present, consist of something like 120,000 bales and will last approximately 12 days, being equal to a sale of 10,000 bales a day. Buyers at this

sale have had ample time, and oppor-

tunity to sample the wool and there Is no travelling from one sale to another. In New Zealand it is quite a common occurrence to dispose of 25,000 id a day, after which buyers are rushed off to the next sale. No sane person will maintain that such a system is in the best- interest of the industry. - The wool-growers have, of course,' themselves to blame as it is tihey that set the pace and rush their wool to the sales. Every attempt made by the brokers to reduce - quantities at the sales and extend the periods in be-

tween is met with the keenest opposition by the growers. This season’s sales may have the effect of bringing the truth home more glaringly than previous years have done, and it is to be hoped an improved system of marketing our wool in New Zealand will be the result. . . ✓ ■ _ ,