Organisation To Protect Private Wool Sales

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 10

Organisation To Protect Private Wool Sales

A new organisation has entered the wool marketing scene in New Zealand. It is the Federation of New Zealand Wool Merchants formed to co-ordinate and provide a voice for major interests involved in the purchase of wool from growers by private treaty, says a statement issued by the secretary of the federation, Mr P. C. A. Col* Uns.

The federation will hold its first annual meeting in Palmerston North this month. The first president of the new organisation is Mr H. J. Dewe, Mayor of Feilding. As a wool-grower, buyer and exporter of many years’ standing, he has had a long association with many aspects of the industry. Mr Dewe is one of the early members of the New Zealand Wool Buyers’ Association.

The first two vice-presi-dents are Messrs R. A. Weber, of Palmerston North, representing the North Island, and R. G. Woodham, of Ashburton, representing the South Island. The executive comprises these three officers, together with Messrs N. Beder (Palmerston North), W. Stewart (Invercargill), W. H. Roberts (Hawera), R. J. Mac Kay (Napier) and J. Follick (Masterton).

“The main object of the new federation is to promote a sound private wool purchase system to operate complementary to the auction system in the wool trade. Approximately 150,000 bales of wool, worth nearly £lsm, are now being marketed through the organisation concerned with private buying. For a variety of reasons, the development of this competitive method, as a significant but complementary feature of present day wool marketing is, for the grower, the industry and the country, an important and desirable trend. Basically, the private purchase system provides a competitive stimulus in the marketing of the New Zealand wool clip.

“Perhaps the greatest argument in favour of the private purchase system is the personal relationship which is established between grower and buyer. The private buyer has a good appreciation of the wool, because he knows the conditions of shearing, the type of country on which the sheep are running. In fact, he knows everything about each Individual clip and is thus able to value it to advantage. This personal relationship is important, as it means that the private buyer is deeply concerned with the maintenance of goodwill. To succeed, this must be his first objective.

“Private sales of wool are also proving popular because the businessmen who sell wool privately see a distinct advantage in having the wool in hand to sell when they see fit and not consigned to auction to be sold at a certain time on a certain day—by which time anything can happen.

“As a direct result of the efficiency of the bigger private buyers, their lower operation costs and their methods of preparation to suit particular requirements of manufacture, prices paid to growers compare very favourably with the values paid for wool through other methods of wool disposal. “By providing a competitive scope to the farmer in the marketing of his clip, the private purchase system is playing a worthwhile part. Without competition, efficiency would suffer and costs would rise,” concluded the statement.

Communist Split. The Chinese Communists yesterday told the Soviet Communist Party that December 15, when Russia will convene a conference of 26 parties, “will go down in history as the day of the great split in the international Communist movement.’’—Peking, Sept. 1.