The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1932. WOOL IS UP !

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 225, 22 September 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1932. WOOL IS UP !

JW *7ie cause ,that Jacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, Ar.d the good that %oq can do.

Wool buyers from the Continent have found their voices again, and the chorus of bidding must have come as ihusie to the ears of London brokers. To the grower at this distance it is as sweet as the sound of running water in a desert. It may be said by the grower that the improvement comes far short of what is necessary to give a reasonable return, but the sharpness of the rise, combined with the fact that it is caused mainly by a revival of the European demand, gives ground for hope that it will go further.

The London price is the best guide the producing countries can have, and it is the most important determining factor in wool prices the world over. At the beginning of the century it was a fairly steady quantity, but since the war there have been violent fluctuations, and four years ago there began a disastrous drop. The average of 6|d a pound in London for New Zealand medium crossbred tops, for the year ended June last, was the lowest for forty years, and was a severe blow to the Dominion's export trade. This country, which is one of the world's largest producers of crossbred wool, being second only to the Argentine, found the export value of its wool cut down from over £15,000,000, the figure for 1928-29, to less than one-third of that amount. This slump in the wool market followed a period of high prices. Towards the end of 1922 a decided upward movement began in crossbred wools, and London prices soared from llld a pound, clean scoured basis, to 3/1-J a pound just over two years later. Then there was a fall for two years, and again a rise in 1927 and 1925, but only as a temporary break to the price decline Avhich had begun in 1924. After September last there was a slight upward tendency when Britain went off the gold standard, but later there was a further fall, and in June this year sterling prices for raw wool were actually below the gold prices in June, 1931.

In this crisis the countries which suffered most from the collapse of wool prices were Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. These parts of the world produce three-quarters of the supplies of wool for clothing purposes, and here the sheep is used as a pioneer to civilisation. Sheep farmers found it -impossible to reduce their flocks when the demand for wool fell, and they were exposed to the" full hlast of the depression. New Zealand'suffered less than the others, because the sheep of the Dominion is a dual purpose animal, valuable for its mutton as well as for its wool. Australia had less of j this advantage, and when the fleece of the Merino lost its value there was little else to turn to. This is another reminder of how New Zealand has gained from the change-over from the Merino to the crossbred since the development of refrigeration began half a century ago. The Empire Marketing Board, in a world survey of the industry, states that there are indications that wool will respond quickly to any improvement in the economic situation. No adequate substitute has been found, and new fields for its utilisation .are being explored. Continued research, as well as a greater appreciation of the value of wool as a clothing material, should hasten the return of brighter conditions in the industry.