The Press TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1933. Auckland Wool Sale

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21024, 28 November 1933, Page 10

The Press TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1933. Auckland Wool Sale

The first wool sale of the season at Auckland yesterday exceeded expectations which had been raised by recent Sydney and London levels. Prices were perhaps 3d or 4d better than what had seemed fair estimates; and wool growers throughout the Dominion will be correspondingly encouraged. Nothing so realistically like a return to prosperity has been shown to them for a long time. But when comparisons are made, in Canterbury, for instance, and the yield from forthcoming sales recalculated, it will be prudent to take one or two points into consideration. The top Auckland price was paid for a few bales of an outstandingly fine grade of wool and is not a very reliable guide; and the season has assisted growers to fill the catalogue with wool generally of a better quality than usual. Canterbury's margin of superiority may therefore not be quite so marked as it often is. But even when that is allowed for, the fact that the Auckland average price over the better crossbreds and halfbreds was from 12d to 13d a pound makes it fairly safe to say that the Canterbury average for good halfbred and Corriedale wools will be very near to 18S There is no need to dilate upon the value of such a prospect; it means that financial pressure and anxiety will be eased, necessary development and improvements be undertaken, and purchasing power be increased, to spread from the farm throughout the community. But it may usefully be said that the Auckland advance offers every indication of being firmly maintained. The strength of the Bradford buying and of the competition it met with is notable; and it is a particularly good sign that the Yorkshire mills are keenly interested in crossbred, which always discloses a vigorous market. There is, second, the clean sweep that was made at a sale which realised £300,000 at about £l3 a bale. Finally, the tone and the trend of the market find their explanation in part in the statistical position, which shows that there are nowhere any considerable carryover slocks and that the South African, Australian, and New Zealand clips will be about 750,000 bales lighter than last year. It will also, no doubt, be a fortunate result of what promises to be a very good wool season that more ewe lambs will be carried through the winter and flocks be strengthened next year. The heavy killings necessary in the last season or two have brought a danger in sight which will now be more easily avoided.