The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1933. BRIGHTER PROSPECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 150, 28 June 1933, Page 6

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1933. BRIGHTER PROSPECTS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

-Wool is responding - quickly, as was expected, to the improvement in market conditions. A few months ago prices began to harden under the influence of reviving demand, and the continued pressure of buying is now forcing up values at every important sale. So much does this mean to the Dominions that it can be regarded as the strongest single factor in assisting their recovery. Wool is essentially an Empire commodity, and upon its value depends the prosperity of the pastoral industry in New Zealand, ' Australia and South Africa. Eor the three seasons following 1929 it was unsaleable 1 except at ruinous prices, and in our case the total loss compared with the prices ruling when the slump began amounts to £30,000,000. It is all the difference between ' an annual wool cheque of £15,000,000 and one-third of that amount. The quantity of exports has fallen but little; it is purely a question of price collapse. Yet while the volume of wool exports has been fairly steady, it lias been maintained over the period by the release of surplus stocks rather than by continued production on the former scale. Production has declined with the fall in the sheep population, and surpluses have been worked off. It is so in all the main exporting countries, and a rising demand can now be met only by an increase in the output of the farms. An increase in demand there must be to build up the diminished stocks of woollen goods in all countries. Expansion all along ' the line, from farm to retailer, should be on a firm basis. There is no room for further contraction. 1A forecast from Bradford indicates that confidence among manufacturers is based on a sound computation that consumption ot wool in the coming months will exceed anything experienced since 1924, and the view is taken that a general rise in prices will occur at next week's London sales. No longer are British firms hesitant about buying, and the same applies to manufacturers in other countries. One most encouraging feature is that wool apparently holds its place as a commodity for the making of clothing. No adequate substitute for it has been found, and it is even probable that the finer grades of wool may be put to new uses; indeed, there is much activity at present in exploring new fields for the utilisation of wool, not only in the manufacture of more expensive articles of clothing, but also in the electrical and other industries. All this improves the outlook for New Zealand and the other pastoral countries, and it behoves us to spare no efforts to improve the quality of our output and our method of marketing it. Although wool has a leading place in the present upward movement, it is pleasing to note that all our staple exports are feeling the benefits of market revival. As_Mr. Coates has said, the rise of prices is occurring over a wide field, and in the past three months has brought improvement to meat and dairy produce, wheat and other commodities. At the same time there is unmistakable eagerness abroad to buy for the future at higher prices than those ruling to-day. These are tendencies which past experience has proved point plainly to recovery. It is to be hoped that the movement will be assisted to the utmost extent by the conference now sitting in London.