LONDON WOOL MARKET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3050, 21 November 1908, Page 7

LONDON WOOL MARKET.

Under date October 9th the special correspondent of the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" writes as follows from London: — At the end of last week 'the colonial wool market began to look a little shaky. As a matter of fact it was being overfed. In their anxiety to realise, holders were forcing the pace a little too rapidly, and buyers were being run out of breath, and unable to swallow as fast as the supplies were provided. An average offering of nearly 14,000 bales per diem made a total submitted;™ five days selling of no War short ot 70,000 bales, and this must have gone a considerable way towards filling up the orders with which buyers were turnished, when they came to attend the sales. Saturday's auction, then, was rather a limp and halting cne. For many things the bidding was as brisk, the prices as firm as ever, but to this there was considerable exception. Merino scoured of ordinary to fair quality was very largely represented. Most of the wool wa3 new-clip Queensland, and the produce of this State to a large extent falls below the standard of the previous season.

The'other class of wool which notably hung fire at end of last week was scoured crossbreds. Many Mew Zealands were somewhat poor in the matter of breed, and, in addition, were badly gofr up, by which fo ffleani that they Were in. fatty condition. These were the descriptions which mainly suffered through the market being over supplied, and withdrawals of them were certainly numerous. At the same time, other wools, such as ; Australian merino, greasy of ordinary quality, and odd lots of the same, more or less irregular in point of length, quality, and condition, showed weakness. Perhaps the main cause of slackness in the bidding was the fact that the great bulk of the offering was only suited to the buying of the French and English middlemen. For the German spir.ners, which constitute the strong section of the merino buying fraternity, there was very little which was fine enough in quality to prove interesting, far less attractive. The probability that peace might not, in the long run, be broken, relieved the anxiety of those engaged in the wool trade, permitting the incidence of supply and demand to follow its natural course, with the result that it became evident that requirements had broadened, and that, in spite of the maintenance of heavy daily offerings, the demand was pretty nearly able to keep pace therewith. In really good to superior American merino greasies, the want was decidedly in excess of the supply. Price-s, which for these sorts had bei?n inclining upwards since soon after the sales began now show an almost general advance of 2§ to 5 per cent. Probably owing to some scarcity of water for washing purposes, the New Zealand scoured merinos are not nearly as well got" up as they were last year, and this is, doubtless, the reason that they do not enjoy quite the same favour at the hands of the Yorkshire trade as they are accustomed to do. Recently the withdrawals have mainly consisted of these, and of very short and very faulty scoured Australian merinos.- . During the past two or three days .th 3 American demand for' greasy crossbreds has mu-:h increased in keenness. Th? United States is now buying all grades, with the exception of t&e very coarsest, and its' representatives are not nearly so discriminating as for a long time past they have been, in the matter of condition. So long as the wool posesaes the necessary depth and soundness of staple tbey do not hesitate to take 3 it, even though the waste decidedly ; exceeds the average. For the , choicest, light shrinkage par-'ls j they are now paying id to la above the closing level the July auctions, and prices are indeed not far short of the very highest point touched course of the previous auctions. Fine greasy crossbreds maintain the advance of Jd which they acquired early in the series, and the ordinary, styles of coarse and medium quality were briskly competed for at last week s values by the Home trade. Slipe crossbreds as a whole are doing a little better than they did the first week, but it cannot be said that there is any improvement either in the demand for, nor the price of, scoured wools of this class. The New Zealands, like the merinos, are mostly somewhat fatty, but the produce of the Victorian and New South Wales scouring establishments—which, though of only medium length, are excellently got up—participate in the relative neglect with which scoured crossbred wool generally is treated. The outcome of this state of affairs is that withdrawals are somewhat frequent.