Euzed Junior

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 289, 5 December 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

Euzed Junior

WOOL is UP!

A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE YOUNG FOLK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Vol. 111., No. 14

DID you ever go to a wool sale? "Never," says you. Well, I went on Saturday, and I will try and tell you what happened. It. was in the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, and as I entered the gallery, what was my surprise to hear an extraordinary babel of noise— shrieking, yelling—shouts that, to me, betrayed nothing but the greatest excitement, and for a brief moment I actually thought I must have stumbled on a wrestling match. However, remembering it was nine a'clock in the morning I soon realised my mistake. A friend then took me round to the stage, where I had a good glimpse of the noise-makers. There were about 70 of them, and they were seated on raised st-inds, semi-circular in shape. To these an auctioneer was calling-out numbers, and the yells which I had heard, added to the most extraordinary gesticulations which I now saw, were the response. It was a typical wool sale, at which the fate of New Zealand farmers, tlieir wives and families throughout the Auckland district hung in the balance. In the previous weeks thousands of bales of wool had been arriving daily at the stores at Parnell. There they had been stacked and FC.rted, many of them classified in readiness for the inspection of the buyers. These men were representing firms from all parts of the world —from England, from America, from Germany, from Japan, Russia and Italy — to mention only the most prominent.

Three days before the sale they had spent their time in the huge wool tores, examining with the utmost care samples of the wool from each lot, nd now they were ready with their estimates of the value. At this point occurred the surprise of the last ten years, and t was a surprise that was virtually a glorious Christmas gift to the armers of the Auckland Province. For the prices that were given by .lie successful bidders were away up in the air. A good sale had been :xpected, but no one expected it to be quite so good. Not since 1923 or L 929 had such high prices been given. Since then there had been many jps and downs, and for a while wool 'was so low-priced and so hard to sell that it seemed the farmers must give up rearing sheep, or at least jive up any idea of getting anything worth while from the fleece. As you know, a lot of the material that your mothers and fathers buy now-a-days from the shops is made of rayon and all sorts of mixed textiles. Millions of pounds' worth of this is being made and sold in the world to-day, and it was feared that wool was gradually being ousted from its proud position as the king of textiles. However, in starting the wool season for the Dominion it was Auckland's privilege to demonstrate to its follows all over New Zealand that wool had again come right into its own. It will give you an idea how prices went when I tell you that

AUCKLAND, N.Z., DECEMBER 5, 1936,

at the first sale of the season last year the total cheque amounted tc about £240.000. On Saturday it came nearer to £440,000. You can understand what this means to the struggling farmer. Some of you livt in the country and know —others do not. But Ido not think anyone will grudge the farmer the extra that he is getting on this occasion. It may mean n better education for some members of the family—it may mean new dresses for the wife —it may mean an up-to-date radio set 01 that new motor car which has been the dream of father and mother foi so many years. But i had almost forgotten. The wool, of course,, does not go from the Parnell stores to the Town Hall to be sold. All that the buyers take is their catalogues, with the price marked on which they intend to give, When they are bidding, if they want to say that they will give a farthing more they say 1, if it is a halfpenny more 2, if it is three-farthings more J Thus we will assume that lot 100 is called by the auctioneer. Almost before the number i* out of his mouth four or five buyers may yell simultaneously 11,

which, of coursc, means 11 pence. Next some one 01 more will yell "one," which, of course, means 11 pence farthing. And so it goes on until the lot may b< knocked down at, say, 13-3, meaning 13 pence three farthings. The speed of the selling is extraordinary and quite bewildering to a person entering the woo sale for the first time. When I tel! you that it if not unusual for 840 lots to be sold in an hour yot will gain some idea of the speed of the selling. Anc supposing an average, of about nine bales to each lot this would mean, at £21 a bale (which is a fail average of last Saturday's prices), that £158,700 was put through in one hour. This wool that was solil in Auck land does not stay here long. Th< people who bought it at such liigli prices were keen to get delivers immediately. The price they paid showed how much the world is wanting wool, and the buyers' instructions to the wool-b,rokers before they left on Sunday for the Napier sale were to ship the wool immediately. Therefore, the Port Wyndham, the Mal.aroa, tlie Pakelia and the Port Bo wen had cargo booked for London which, as you know, is the great distributing centre of the world. This does not mean that it will all be taken to Bradford, which is Britain's wool centre. Far from it. Quantities will be resliipped to Germany, to Russia, France and Italy. Two Japanese boats were taking very large quantities to Japan, so that before many weeks are over the wool which was but recently on the slieeps' backs in the Auckland Province will be manufactured into clothing, carpets, rugs, etc., in such wide apart areas as England, Russia and Japan. Last year the wool cheque for New Zealand Was over £10,000,000 — was, in fact, more than double the amount received for the year before. Approximately a rise of one penny a pound in wool means a million pounds more to the New Zealand farmer, and, as the Auckland sale realised something close to 14 pence a pound against SAd last November, you will see how much our farmers stand to gain if these prices are maintained. The important aspect, finally, is that any benefit to the farmer inevitably finds its way through various channels to the whole of the community. The farmer does not bury his wool cheque in his garden — nor does he leave it lying idle in the bank. He banks the money and immediately draws it from the bank, buying goods and seivices of various descriptions from the rest of the community. - And so the money goes round and round, which it was meant to do.