ARE WOOL PRICES DANGEROUSLY HIGH?

Shannon News, 23 January 1925, Page 2

ARE WOOL PRICES DANGEROUSLY HIGH?

In his annual address to the shareholders, the chairman of Dfijgety and Company Ltd., the Hon. E W. **»*«£: speaking on the wool situation said that the statistical position showed that production was well under consumption. Wlr Parker remarked it had been generally anticipated that the l? 23 "** season would show a decrease in the i Australian wool clip of about 250,000 bales. The actual decrease, however, amounted .to 135.000 bales, while the I New Zealand clip showed an increase of just over 5000 bales. The wool sold in. Australia and NewZealand for 1923.24 showed a decline of 207 244 bales, but the value increased by over £10,750.000. The Australasian average value per bale for the 1928-24 season was £29 9/0 against an average of £22 »/» for 1922-23 —an increase of over *7 per bale. -This year it, was. expected that the Australian clip would amount to somewhere about 2,000,000 bales, which would more than make up for last season's decrease. The New Zealand clip, on the other hand, would probably be about stationary. Values were now on a very high level—some people might con. s'der them dangerously high—but according to reliable statistics the world consumption of wool had fat out-stripped the production. Comparing the prices ruling at the end of June, 1923, with those of to-day, fine crossbreds were medium and coarse crossbreds showed an extraordinary advance—9o to 100 per cent. There was at present a strong demand for fine wools, but an even keener demand for crossbreds, and this had resulted in the clearance of the whole of the stocks of Bawra wool the last being sold in Liverpool in May of tnis year.