“POSTPONE ALL SALES"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 880, 25 January 1930, Page 10

“POSTPONE ALL SALES"

SUGGESTION IN SOUTH UNSATISFACTORY MARKET Press Association INVERCARGILL, Friday. A suggestion likely to give rise to a great deal of controversy was made today by an eminent Invercargill authority on the wool question, who said that in view of the present unsatisfactory state of the market all fothcoming wool sales in New Zealand should •be postponed until the market has again become stabilised. The speaker, who has had many years’ experience in handling wool 4 said his suggestion was perfectly logical and would be viewed with favour by many connected with the trade. “I feel,” he said, “that the time has now arrived when, in the best interests of the New Zealand wool growers, brokers and financing institutions, it would be a wise development to discontinue further selling for a few months. This would enable the trade to absorb some of the wool that lias already been purchased and would allow finance in the consuming centres to become a little easier. At the moment New Zealand growers, through their brokers, are forcing on the market a heavy percentage of this season’s clip, in front of buyers who have no particular sincerity of desire to purchase. This in itself is having a very disquieting effect. “Cabled advices from Home arc not very reassuring, and the demand apparently is more or less from hand to mouth. But a prominent factor in the wool business that is causing the continued drop in values is finance, which in the course of a few months might become much more stabilised. The values of our staple product have now fallen until it must compete very substantially with any of the artificial fabrics. This is a most desirable situation from many points of view; so much so that a considerable and rapid increase in the consumption of the world’s wool is very probable. “It is not likely tl\at the local sales will be postponed at this juncture, but many growers will no doubt decide to withdraw their wool f k rom auction in the meantime, rather than have their clip passed in in the salerooms. Those who are disposed to sell must be prepared to accept values which, compared with last year’s prices, will show a reduction of from 40 to 50 per cent.”