SALES PUT OFF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 10

SALES PUT OFF.

WOOL IN AUSTRALIA. POSTPONEMENT TILL AUGUST SOME COUNTRIES NOT BUYING (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June IG. The June series of wool sales which | were to have been held at Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane have been postponed, and the market will probably not reopen till August. This step has been taken, after conference, on the recommendation of the Australian Wool Growers' Council and the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers, and the decision has been approved by the Queensland United Graziers' Association and other similar bodies. Those who make a business of raising wool and selling >vool are obviously in the best position to understand and to foretell marketing conditions, and though this announcement has come rather as a shock after the splendid results secured a few months ago, the general opinion is that the step now taken is desirable and indeed necessary. Australia's policy has generally beeh to "meet the market," and the practice of selling freely and refusing to hold over large stocks has certainly paid our woolmen in the past. But at this present juncture there are special circumstances that must be taken into account. Germany has ceased for the moment to buy, having for economic and political reasons imposed an embargo on foreign wool. France and Italy are also to a large extent "off the market," as they are intent on securing "reciprocal trade." They hold that their heavy purchases from Australia justify them in expecting a larger share of the Australian markets for their own goods, and they no doubt intend to negotiate with us on these lines. In the meantime they are not buying wool, and, in the case of France, the political disturbances which she has experienced of late have probably tended to paralyse temporarily her commercial and industrial activities. Outside Europe, the Japanese are our best customers, and Japan, having secured large shipments earlier in the season, did not buy to any great extent at the recent Melbourne sales. Thus Australia finds that her best customers are not ready just now to take off the output, and the argument in favour of postponing the sales for a short period is a strong one. In New South Wales onl}' about 12,000 bales will be held over, but at the Brisbane sales it was expected that 90,000 bales would be offered. This means a serious set-back to the producers concerned, but everybody here seems to realise that it is 1 only a temporary reverse. The "Sydney Morning Herald," which, in discussing all such matters, is eminently sensible and practical, has admitted that, though contrary to our traditional policy, the decision to postpone the sales, being taken after due deliberation by the responsible authorities, "must command respect," and the people chiefly interested are evidently prepared to make the best of it.