PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8432, 2 May 1907, Page 3

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOL.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 22, The total quantity of raw wool available for consumption in 1906 was 2,312 million lbs against 2,249 million lbs in the preceding year. The receipts fromlhe Colonies and the River Plate during the calendar year amounted to 1,778,000 bales Australasian, 229,000 bales Cape, and 476,000 bales River Plate, against 1,710,000, 219,000 and 496,000 bales, respectively, in 1905. In consequence of the shifting of , arrivals, very early receipts at the end of 1905, and retarded imports in 1906, the increase is very small in contrast with the increase of about 265,000 bales/ in the Australasian production during last season. The supply of "other sorts" shows again a very large increase, no doubt partly in consequence of the high prices for most kinds of medium and low wools. The increase was mainly in Asiatic sorts, viz., Mediterranean, East India and China. The receipts of China wool (including Cashmere) amounted to as much as 87,000 bales against 65,000 bale 3 in 1905, 47,000 bales in 1900, 22,000 bales in 1890, and about 2,300 bales in 1880. The quantity of raw wool left for consumption in 1906 — independent of stocks —'Shows an increase of 47 million lbs in the United Kingdom and 63 million lbs on the Continent, and a decrease of 47 million lbs in the United States. The stocks of imported wool are still very moderate, but. the stocks of domestic wools were larger both in this country and in the United States than at the end of 1905. The total supply of raw wool—in the state as received—was last year still below the record year 1895, but owing to the greater yiejd of Austra- I lasian and Rivor Plate wools the ' estimated total supply of clean wool exceeded that of 1895. The average annual value per lb was ttfe highest since 1882; the lowest year—taking .all qualities in the aggregate—Was 1901, and the rise since then amounts to as much as 65 per cent. The total /value 1 of the whole production was probably higher than before, exceeding even 1872, when the total quantity was only 820 million lbs, clean wool, but at a much higher price level. The quantity of clean wool at the disposal of the industry (not the quantity actually consumed in the form of, manufactures) was on the average of periods as follows per head of population:-- 1861-70, lbs and decimals, 2.26; 1871-80, 2.43; 1881-90, 2.57; 1891-1900, 2.16; 1901-1906, 2.62. We have left the Continental production unchanged for some time past, report Messrs Helmuth, Schwartze and Co., though, of course, | we are well aware of the consider- . able decrease in the number of ; » sheep that has taken place in many countries, particularly in Germany, I Austria-Hungary and France, but so I long as the returns from some very I important countries, especially Rus- , sia, Spain and Italy, are not more | frequent and more reliable, it is useless to insert corrected figures. Any decrease in the number of sheep has, in our qpinion,. probably been very nearly balanced by the constant improvements and changes in breeding, and we believe that the. figure of 300 million lbs, clean wool for the Continental production (excluding the Balkan Peninsula) gives still a fairly correct proportion of the total. We would like to warn people not to rely too much on sheep statistics, or figures which; purport to be statistics; if fairly reliable for'a particular country they cannot always be use J for a comparison with others. In some countries figures are collected in ' the middle of the winter, in others just after lambing, including the whole increase. In some compilations annual figures of the number of .Sheep at the River Plate and in South' Africa have been given,' but so far as we are informed such annual statistics do not exist. Take Australasia, where we have very full particulars from year to year, and it will be found that the produce per sheep has been enormously increased'owing to improved breeding, to crossing with bigger sheep and to increased slaughtering. According to our estimates the average production of clean wool per sheep has been as follows (for the seasons closing with the years named):—lßß6-1890, 2.401u5; 18911895, 2.631b5; 1896-1900, 3.101b5; 1901-1905, 3.5 libs; 1906-1907, 3.601bs (probably). This means an increase in the shearing weight within 20 years of 50 per cent., and similar conditions no doubt prevail at the River, Plate. With regard tothe present season's supply, we gave an estimate in our annual 'report of 150,000 bales increase~in» Australia andj New Zealand,' and of 30,000 bale's at the Cape, while it is generally anticipated that there will be some decrease—all crossbreds—from the River Plate. We have, up to , now, not received any information which would lead us to correct these figures, but as the shipments at the end of last year were much delayed and are therefore shifted to the present year,'the increase in supplies ior the calendar year must naturally be much greater if normal conditions , prevail again in the autumn.