The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1937. WOOL PRICES STEADY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 6

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

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1937. WOOL PRICES STEADY.

For the omiae that lacks assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good thai vie can do.

Willi more than lialt' »>£' the season's wool-selling programme completed, there now appears, reason to anticipate that the high hopes entertained of its total result will not he disappointed. At the outset, the tirst Auckland sale, there was an ahnorinal influence operating, in the concentrated buying of the Japanese representatives, and this continued until some time after a settlement was announeed of the Australian-Japanese trade dispute. It had been anticipated that this settlement might depress the prices paid in New Zealand to a level considerably below that attained at the opening sales of the season, but this has not happened. There lias been a slight drop in prices, but, as was shown again at Xapier yesterday, they remain at a level which is higher than the most optimistie persons had expected before the selling season opened. At present, as a trade publication has pointed out, wool has an influential volume of factors in its favour to withstand unsettling influences. As far as can be ascertained, the buying at New Zealand sales is more widely distributed than it was at the beginning of the season, and the competition, if less sensational, is more substantial. In view of the trend of events in Europe, culminating in the vast armament programme in Britain, which, apart from armament expenditure, is on a rising tide of prosperity, there appears no reason to fear a slackening of demand for wool. Indeed, there was some indication at Xapier yesterdaj', that the finer wools having for the most part been bought at high prices at the earlier sales, the demand is now for the coarse sorts which usually predominate in the offerings at the later sales. And if buyers are keen to buy, the farmers are certainly keen to sell. In this respect also the season has been phenomenal. Passings have been so few as to be negligible—63 bales out of 30,000 at Xapier—and there are indications that all saleable wool is being sent to the market. Whether this is due to apprehension that the current level of prices cannot last, or to a conviction borne of experience that it is unwise to disdain good prices in the hope that they will be better, is a point on which opinions differ, but the result is likely to be a practical clearance of the whole of the Dominion's wool stocks, not only this season's clip, but the residue of previous clips. All this wool, as overseas reports indicate,' is going into consumption. Meanwhile Australian stores are "getting 'towards empty floors," and in South Africa about two-thirds of the clip had been sold by December 31. These factors support a reasonable expectation that after the winter the general demand for wool will be little if [any less keen than it was shown to be last November.