The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1899.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 435, 16 May 1899, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1899.

The last number of the Melbourne Insurance and Banking Record contains a very able article on the " Australasian Pastoral Position and Outlook." The five continental colonies, with Tasmania and New Zealand, are grouped together. The past year has been the third season in succession during which large areas in Australia have suffered from severe drought, with consequent heavy losses of stock. The total wool clip of Australasia for 1897-8 was (rouudly) 1,711,090 bales, worth approximately £21,815,000, as compared with 1896-7 1,845,000 bales, valued at £22,140,000. The shrinkage is practically all accounted for by drought losses, estimated at some 7,500,000 sheep. At the end of 1897 the aggregate number of sheep in the seven colonies was reckoned to be 103,500,000 ; it is now considered that at the commencement of 1899 the numbers will from further losses through drought have been brought down to about 100,000,000. Careful calculations warrant the hope that the shrinkage in the quantity of the wool clip now being realised will not be so great as was a few months since feared, and it is hoped that the total will be some 1,670,000 bales, which should realise about £22,962,000; this would mean that though there will be a decrease of 41,000 bales in quantity, the value of the clip will be £1.147,000 greater. To bring these large figures more within grasp, we may say that this will be, with one exception, the most valuable clip Australasia ever produced, the value per bale being £l3 or £1 per balo higher than twelve months ago. This is the measure of the steady increases in value which have obtained during the past year, and it may further be remembered that in the London sales now in progress the opening sales have shown even a higher range of prices than was expected when the Melbourne article was published.

In regard to comparative wool values, a writer in the Review of Reviews says that whilst New Zealand has less than half as many sheep, her clip is worth more than half that of New South Wales. The explanation is that whilst an average New South Wales sheep yields 3s 8d worth of wool, the average New Zealand fleece brings 4s 6d. With reference to the general values of wool in to-day's markets, it may be feared that so far as this part of New Zealand is concerned, very little of the improvement in prices will come our way; we must be content meantime to rejoice that our Australian neighbours are thus so far compensated for the drought losses in their merino flocks by the increased values of the wool now being realised—indeed the one is the result of the other —it is now evidont that the production of best merino wool is not equal to the demand of British manufacturers. Mainly owing to the development of the frozen meat trade, the proportion of merino sheep in New Zealand has for years been declining, until at date of last sheep returns the number of crossbred sheep largely exceeded half ot the total of 19,690,000 sheep in the colony. It will have been noted that fine crossbreds have in measure participated in recently improved values, but the heavier, coarser wools are at a very low level. Taking everything into account, we may say that (a) merino wools are, owing to present and anticipated shortage of supplies, at a very high range of values; (b) that best crossbreds are, in view of the local and foreign meat markets, with fair prices for such wool, quite as profitable, and these values are more likely to be permanent, as they do not depend only on wool. Therefore the best sheep for Waikato are :—Good crossbreds, such as are so largely imported from Napier, or locally bred. For the present at anyrate tho Lincoln breeds do not seem to be likely to yeild such profitable results. With Southern purchasing orders for lambs, and a general demand for good young stock, it may be expected that full prices will rule for some time to come. Therefore, as wo said the other day, flock owners should breed as many as possible, and from most profitable classes of stock.