LONDON WOOL REPORT.

Southland Times, Issue 1063, 4 December 1868, Page 2

LONDON WOOL REPORT.

The Wool Circular of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, dated October Ist, reports : — , Wool.— The Augußt-September series of colonial, wool sales terminated on the 27th ult., 208,223 bales only having been catalogued out of a total quantity arrived as follows : — Sydney, 58,583 bales ; ' Victoria, 64,003 do; Tasmania, 8,855 do ; New Zealand, 50,960 do ; South Aua tralia, 11,864 do j Swan River, 480 do ; Cape of Good Hope, 31,382 do ; total, 226,127 bales ; thus leaving about 17,904 bales for future disposal, in addition to withdrawals of about 23,600 bales, of which, however , it is estimated that 17,600 bales only remain unsold. The actual stock of wool, therefore, including new arrivals to date, which are returned as follows : — 3ydney, 14,964 bales ; Victoria, 4,904 do ; Tasmania, 1,357; South Australia, 586 do; New Zealand, 7,628 do } Cape of Good Hope, 12,166 do ; total, 41,605 bales, shows a rough total of 77,000 bales, which it is anticipated will be fur- i

ther increased for the November sales by about , 20,000 to 25,000 bales, giving a total of rather over ] 00,000 bales against 107,404 bales for the same series of 1867. The course of the market during the concluding portion of the sales pre- , sented no variation requiring any modification of the tenor of our previous advices issued from mail to mail during their earlier currency, beyond the notice of a slight increase of spirit and tone in the three closing days — due more to a sense of relief experienced by buyers at the termination of one of the longest and "most irksome periods of sale on -record, than to any more tangible reason. A general review of the situation of the ■woolen trade, and the circumstances affecting its condition, at the close of a series which will long be remembered as having marked one of the most disastrous fluctuations ever witnessed, is the more unsatisfactory that it reveals the influence of no special cause affecting consumption to which such exceptional depression may be assigned. For very many years it hai been urged that the enormously increasing proportions of the colonial export of wool would sooner or later reach a point at which a serious depreciation in value would follow as a necessary consequence, but although at particular periods a reduction in price immediately traceable to the effects of war, Bad harvests,- or other misfortunes, has been aggravated by the progressively augmenting supply, the expansion of the trade has till now on the average proved equal to the increasing production. The maintenance of a high range of value may have heen in seme degree due to the years of inflationand over-tradingwhich preceded the panic of 1866, but whether this be so or not, it is undeniable that since that period, the limits of the trade have by no means been characterised by the elasticity which previously existed ; thus the relations cf supply and demand have suffered considerable modification, and the crisis so long predicted has at length arrived. The feature of this depreciation most worthy of remark is its excessive suddeness, which may perhaps be partly ascribed to a mistaken estimate by manufacturers and staplers' duriug the early sales of the year of the probable future course of trade, and also in some degree to the character of the great majority of wools comprised in the series, which, being Jor the most part extremely faulty and ill-conditioned failed to attract in any numbers the foreign members of the trade, who, it will be remembered, contributed such valuable support to the market during the May- June sales, and whose comparative absence therefore told with double severity. Of the 50,980 bales which have comprised the contribution from New Zealand, a very small proportion is entitled to rank (either as regards breed or condition) as first class wool, but the minority of well-bred well-conditioned flocks have, like the better descriptions of neighboring colonial growth, suffered proportionately less, and may be quoted at a decline of 2d per lb on the lower rates of the May-June sales. The great bulk of the shipments again show the falling off in breed and quality on which we have before had reason to remark, and indeed in such a degree has this tendency been developed as to render them in great measure unfit for the continental markets, and to restrict their use to blanket purposes, or the manufacture of inferior tweeds. In other instances, where the character of the wool has been comparatively maintained, the great neglect shown in the washing, spirting, and hacking has robbed them of any advantage arising from that circumstance. For all this class of growth the depreciation has ranged from 3d to 4d per lb. The same remarks as regards grease wools will bear in a great degree similar application, except in the extent of the reduction, which we may quote at l£d to 2d per lb. The actual circumstances of the trade do not point to the probability of any speedy or material improvement. Both staplers and manufacturers are heavily stocked, and while the stock of wool for November will be ample to suffice for the remaining months of the year, the additional increase in the supply for the coming season, which has already been advised as certain, will probably fully meet the contingent requirements of any improvemnt in trade. Though we can thus hold out but little encouragement to growers as regards better markets, we would emphatically point their attention to the fact of the relativly satisfactory rates which really first-class wools have commanded during the late series, and urge them to find here an indication of the true policy to be adopted under the altered conditions of supply and demand, viz ; the introduction of better blood to their nocks, and a more careful and skilful regard to the various elements of good management.