AT AN ENGLISH WOOL SALE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1292, 20 January 1885, Page 3

AT AN ENGLISH WOOL SALE.

There is do more curious sight i.'i the cify than one of the wool auctions which arc now being held every afternoon in t.ho Wool Eichmge, Coleman street. Imagine a large and lofty loom capable of holding about five hundred people. Benches, in the form of a semi-circle, rise tier above tier, so that all the sitters are plainly visible from the tribune, or rostrom••- an elevated desk at the bottom of the room. Every seat if numbered, and the highest number is 396. A narrow g.iPcry provides accommodation for the few speclators. Five minutes before four nearly every seat is occupied, the demand for them exceeding the supply ; and as the clock strikes the four the auctioneer, or selling; broker, takes his place in the tribune., He is a cool, self-possessed, good-looking man, with a keen eye, rosy cheeks, and hair parted in the middle. On either side of him sits a clerk—one bald and dark, the other hirsute and blonde. No time is lost in preliminaries; an eloquent wool-auctioneer would be an intoleiable nuisance, and this one is as sparing of words as a telegram from China. Every buyer before him is the busiest of men, and he has to sell a hundred thousand pounds' wortli of wool before six o'clock. " Lot 213, ten bales," he says. Simple words, but ths signal for a tempest of excitement. From every part of the room come, as it were, scattered shots in quick succession " Eight-half, nine, ten, ten-half." Then up spring a dozen, or it may be a score, of eager, earnest men, who shout passionately at the top of their voices, and almost in chorus, "Tenhalf, ten-half, ten-half," until it almost seems as if the roof would split. Some stretch their arms towards the tribune, as if they were threatening a foe ; others work them to and fro as if they were engaged in mortal combat ; others again rise them upward, as if they were appealing to Heaven. They yell still more loudly, gesticulate still more widely, some in their excitement bending forward until they nearly topple over on the seats below. It is a benr-garden, a Babel, a scene of indescribable confusion, and to the uninitiated spectator it seems as if the franctie bidders were about to jump from their places and punch each others' heads. But the auctioneer speaks one work and the storm is still; every voice is hushed, every man resumes his seat. That word is "Tomkins." The lot has been knocked down to Tomkins. Without drawing breath the selling broker goes on to the next lot, and then there is another startling roar, followed by an equally sudden collapse. The faces of some of the bidders are a study. One gentleman, with a bald heai, surrounded by a fringe of black hair, and features unmistakeably French, gets so excited that you fear he may breik a blood-vessel, or have a fit of apoplexy. His wide nostrils quiver, h's swarthy face becomes dark-red, he fights the air with his arms, and hurls his bids at the auctioneer as if he would annihilate him. Near the Gaul is a fair Teuton, stalwart and tall, shouting offers as if he were crying " Vorwats !" in the smoke of battle, and glaring at his competitors as if he would like to charge down upon them as the Uhlans charged down on the French at Gravelotte and Sedan. Not far from the foreigners sits a gentleman whose cast of features and style of dres3 leave little doubt that lie is a manufacturer or wool-stapler, and hails from a Northern country. To make his bid more affaclive, he puts one hand to the side of his mouth, and gesticulates with the other ; but ho needs no artificial aid, for lie has a voice of thunder, and shouts like a Boanerges. But why all this noise] Why cannot a wool auctioneer knock down his wares to the highest bidder, like any other auctioneer 1 There is the rub! The difficulty is to "spot" the highest bidder. All the firms represented at the auction know to a fraction the value of every parcel they wish to acquire, aud five, or ten, or a score, as the case mav be, are willing buyers of a certain lot'at, let us say, a shilling a pound—more they cannot afford to give. The rule is, when there are several bidders at the same price—and there generally are several bidders—to prefer the one who bids the first, which is practically the one who first succeeds in attracting the auctioneer's atter.tion. In such a contest the feeble-voiced lias no chance, and the loudest shouters are the most likely to come out of it victorious. When the selling broker names the buyer who has c.iught his ear, all the rest subside like would-be orators in the House of Commons who fail to cmtoh the Spo.ikei's eye. The confidence in the impartiality sf-ems to be absolute ; he never loses his self-possession, and time is too precious to be wasted m wrangling. The money turned over at these sales is something enormous, probably twcr»ty=n>a millions, more or less, according to the amount imported and the price of the materia]. At present the prioo of wool, like that of most other commodities, is uuusually low. There are four sales a

ye ir, each lasting about six weeks, ami u is now proposed to have a lil'tli sale. Individual brokers often sell a quarter of a iniliiuii's worth of wool in six days, ihe brokerage on which, uK a hnif per cent, amounts to £l2so—not a had week's work, especially as tin? incidental charges are believed 1o cover their expenses. More than one broker is reported to make an income exceeding fifty thousand n year.—Homo Paper.