WOOL GROWING.

Southland Times, Issue 556, 7 September 1866, Page 3

WOOL GROWING.

(From the " Oamaru Times," 23th August.) On looking over the prices at which the wools shipped per Kobert Henderson and Timaru sold for in London, one is struck with the disparity in point of value between greasy and low-classed qualities, and those upon which a little pains had been taken in the getting up. Eleven-pence-halfpenny was about the average for greasy, while for clips somewhat similar but tolerably well washed the average was 21*. Now, there are several reasons why such a great discrepancy obtains between greasy and clean wools. The first is that the former has to compete with an immense quantity in the same state from South Australia a the

wool from tbat colony being nearly all sent home iv the grease, and also with what is grown on stations in Victoria and Queensland, where there is not a sufficiency of water to wash. A large quantity also is sent home from the Cape of Good Hope in tbe same state, so that the natural consequence is, there is more competition in low qualities than in any others. In the second place, the buyers of inferior wools are more easily pleased than buyers of the first-class article ; and having at the same time more to select from, cannot be induced to pay high prices. In the third place, the best buyers are tbe French (who, we are informed, took out of the May sales about sixty thousand bales) who usually select the cleanest and best wools. Price to tbem is not so much an object as is tbe procuring precisely tbe quality tbey require. There are instances known of tbeir giving sixpence per pound more than any ony one else when tbe article was of extra good quality. Why tben, it may be reasonably asked, should our settlers be satisfied with one shilling per pound when Mr Cumming, of Victoria, is getting 4s. ld. at the same sale (last year, we understand, he got as high as 4s. l^d.), and Mr Kermode, of Tasmania, 3s. to 3s. 6d. per lb. frequently for his ? Our sheep are, or in a few years may be made, as good as theirs ; we have au abundant supply of soft water ; and our wool is both loug and strong; fit for combing purposes, so that we only require to pay proper attention to the washing and *"* gettingurp," to render our export of this valuable staple double what it is ut present. A few of our settlers have indeed made some faint attempts at improvement, and have been rewarded in a measure by obtaining for several years consecutively the higbest prices for ordinary washed New Zealand wool. We might inssance, without intending any individious comparison whatever, the owners of Cassle Rock, Totora, Moeraki, and Shag Valley, whose wools appear to have commanded higher prices than others ofthe same class. Such a circumstanoe only serves to indicate what may be done in future by judicious breeding and care in the getting-np of the wool. We might here remark tbat we have nothing but the prices as reported in the newspapers before us. Presuming for a moment, which is scarcely called for, that these figures may be in some instances slightly above or below the prices obtained —or that the report does not giye the fullest information, some high and some low being omitted, it does not and cannot preclude one from forming tbe opinion that there is no good reason why tbe wools of Otago and Southland' should not rank with £he best clips of Australasia. With a temperate climate, an equable supply of food and water throughout the year, and facilities for making paddocks, it will be tbe fault of tbe settlers themselves if their clips do not take a first place in the London Market. To sum up, we would say to our wool growers, in sending home wool in the grease, or carelessly got up, you have the worst buyers and the greatest competition ; by washiug clean you have the best buyers and the least competition.