WINTER WOOL SALE CONCLUDES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 16

WINTER WOOL SALE CONCLUDES

Slight Easing But Values At Good Levels

Though the Christchurch winter wool sale ended at midday on Saturday with halfbred wools fractionally easier than on Friday, and with crossbred barely iirm, the sale was still a remarkably good one and it is probable that the average price for the sale for current season’s wool will be of the order of 39d to 40d per lb, which is about 44 A per cent above the average return in August last year.

For one catalogue of current season’s wool sold on Friday the average was 39.4 d per lb and for a selection of wool sold on Saturday morning the average return was 39.6 d.

The bulk of the wool sold on Saturday morning was stock wool held by the Wool Commission, which offered 7438 bales of mainly fine wool out of the total offering of 10,989, bringing the offering for the two days of the sale to 35,526 bales.

Although halfbred style wools were not selling quite up to opening rates the commission had another remarkably good sale with a fair proportion of straight fleece finding buyers at between 47d to 55d. Only about 142 bales of stock wools did not find ready commercial buyers on Saturday. This means that over the two days just over 14.000 bales of stock wools were absorbed by the trade with only 200 odd bales reverting to the commission.

The opinion is that on the finer qualities of its offering the commission has been making only a small gain, but on the medium and coarser fine wools the appreciation since these wools were bought in has been quite marked and the commission stands to earn a worth-while surplus.

Compared with February prices in Christchurch when about 9400 bales or about 17 per cent, of the offering was passed to the commission’s floor price bid Merino was selling last week at 4d to 6d per lb better, extra fine and fine halfbred and Corriedale at 5d to 6d up, medium halfbreds and Corriedales at an advance of 7d to lOd per lb and coarser qualities at 8d to Is better. Though there were a few passings of current wools of all types, with the finer wools predominating, when the sale was resumed on Saturday there was still a widely spread demand from a full bench of buyers at prices that showed little variation from the previous day. Crossbred Fleece A substantial part of the crossbred fleece was still making from 48d to 53d with the best price of the day 54d. At rates ruling this week crossbred wools were generally 9d to Is dearer than at the corresponding sale last August and for some classes of medium crossbreds the advance was up to about 13d. Even on the good sale last April when prices, for particularly the' coarser wools, lifted by lOd per lb there was a still further gain of Id to 3d.

Halfbred fleece of average and better style was regularly selling on Saturday in the 47d to 53d range with prices, reaching up to 61jd for Corriedale from the Cheviot district and to 58}d for halfbred. The extra fine and fine qualities looked to be only about Id to 3Jd up on a year ago and about Id to 2d in advance of last April, but mediums were 5d to 6d higher than at the last winter sale and coarser

halfbreds were up by 9d to lid with once more prices being Id to 3d higher than at the close of the last season.

A happy aspect of the sale was the better tone of the market for Merino wool which was mainly in the stock offerings. For comparable qualities Merino was 8d to lOd dearer than last August, 4d to 6d better than in February and Id to 3d higher than in April. Sales between 49d and 54d were made quite regularly on Saturday and the top price was 56d for commission wool. Crutchings Sell Well Crutchings have also shown very substantial advances on the prices of a year ago. A comparison of last week's prices with last August shows Merino crutchings making 5d to 8d more, halfbreds 6d to Is, and crossbreds up to Is better. On Saturday average to good crossbred crutchings were selling at 37d to 40d. with the highest price in the section at 42]d, and halfbred crutchings at 30d to 35d. with the tops at 41d for halfbred and 37d for Corriedale. Threequarterbreds made up to about 40d and Merinos to 34d. In the oddment section on Saturday a selection of good fine wool necks brought from 45d to 52d, pieces from 39d to 45d. bellies from 35d to 40d. and good crossbred pieces from 36d to 42d and bellies from 34d to 37d. Corriedale fleece wool made to 61jd, which was Id more than the top sale on Friday for the section. The price was gained by the estate J. J. Fitzpatrick • Cheviot) for eight bales. Sales at 58d were made by S. Larsen (Swannanoa) with six bales and R. G. Macdonald (Cheviot) with four bales. The commission sold six bales at 57jd and four at 56id. Halfbred fleece wool values were topped by Pyne, Gould. Guinness, with sales of binned wool which realised 581 d for seven bales, 57jd for four bales, and 56jd for 10 bales. P. B. Nixon (Kaikoura) sold six bales at 57Jd and the commission sold five bales at 57d.

In the merino section the top price was 56d. The commission sold 13 bales at that figure, nine bales at 55Jd, 13 bales at 54Jd. 15 at 53? d and 12 ata 53Jd. Crossbred wools made to 54d which was gained by Howden Bros. (Port Levy) with 26 bales and E. G. Latter (Kaikoura) with nine bales.

Crossbred crutchings sold to which was paid for three bales offered by Narbey and Company (Akaroa). Two binned lots, totalling 23 bales, offered byPyne, Gould, Guinness, Ltd., Christchurch, fetched 42d. The estate of J. O. and Miss E. M. Coop (Ataahua) sold four bales at 41? d.

Binned halfbred crutchings offered by Pyne, Gould. Guinness. Ltd., Christchurch, topped the section. Three bales realised 41d five made 38jd and 34 bales made 38d. For Corriedale crutchings J. Martin (Ashburton) received 37d for two bales.and A. R. Harrison (Scargill) sold three bales at 35’d.

Merino crutchings from Murchison Bros. (Lake Coleridge) sold at 34d and the Rossmore Station (Blenheim) received 32d for three bales.

The 1201 lots offered on Saturday were disposed of in the quick time of just under four hours.

Details of the offering were: Current Season's Wool.—Pyne, Gould. Guinness, Ltd., 3551 bales! Stock Wool: Pyne, Gould, Guinness,, Ltd.. 1412 bales: New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. 774; Dalgety and Company, 2718; National Mortgage and Agency and H. Matson and Company, 1541; New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, 993; total, 7438 bales.