The Wool Sale.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20730, 15 December 1932, Page 8

The Wool Sale.

Although the wool sale yesterday opened disappointingly, its course from a fairly early poist was more encouraging. Improvement began when the finer wools attracted the free bidding of the local mills, which influenced the tone of competition for all good classes in the catalogue. Except at the beginning of the sale, prices therefore generally reached anticipated levels, at which vendors freely met the market. Passings were only about 10 per cent.; and though such a clearance is far from indicating that profitable prices were realised, it indicates at least that they were preferable to the risks of tieing up business and waiting for a rise. It is encouraging, also, to find that all the chief buying centres —Bradford, France, and Germany —were active, and active in particular among the fine wools. Breadth and steadiness of demand here give growers in Canterbury and on the East Coast of the South Island generally reasons for confidence, or at least hope, which cannot be felt in districts which produce tho poorer and coarser wools. I 1 or them the future holds very little promise; but the fine wool areas will be the last to suffer any further break in prices and the first to benefit from a rise. That this is sorely needed is shown as plainly by the top prices of the sale as by the average and lower prices.