"Passed To Commission”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 9

"Passed To Commission”

'THE Wool Commission came back into the market at this week’s wool sale in support of a flagging market for particularly coarser wools. Some 3600 bales or more than 12 per cent of the offering were passed into the commission. The commission’s representatives also placed their floor price bid on more than 27 per cent of the lots offered and on many occasions their intervention brought bids of another fraction of a penny and even a penny or two from reluctant buyers resulting in a sale and demonstrating a virtue of the floor price system that is hard to measure but for which some growers have reason to be very grateful.

Although for a long time now the commission’s representatives have had a mainly watching brief at Christchurch sales, it was not so at the end of the 1957-58 season and in the 1958-59 season. In the 1957-58 season the commission bought 43,821 bales in New Zealand and 3078 bales in London and in the following season 44,290 bales in this country and 2111 bales in Britain—a grand total for the two seasons of 93,300 bales. Growers supplying the Christchurch centre have reason to remember those seasons for a sizeable part of the commission’s purchases were made in Canterbury. The April sale in 1958, when there was an offering of more than 37,000 bales, proved to be the most disappointing of that season—the average price slumped to 33.48 d a lb from nearly 48d at the previous sale and the commission absorbed more than a fifth of the offering. Of the 44,290 bales bought by the commission in 1958-59 about 21,500 bales were acquired at the Christchurch sales and 9500 at the Timaru sales. Thus three-quarters of

the commission’s buying was done in Canterbury. In the December sale in 1958 the commission placed its floor price bid on 58 per cent of the lots offered and some 7500 bales were either passed in or sold to the commission out of 32,844 bales offered. The average price at that sale was 36.52 d per lb. The market began to pick up again at the tail-end of that season and the recovery carried through into the next and at the start of that season the Wool Commission was able to dispose of the bulk of the purchases it made in the previous season. Growers now must also be looking for that silver lining.

The fan cost about £l6O, the second-hand engine about £5O, and V belts and pulleys about £2O or £3O, so that the basic parts of the unit would be worth about £250. On this stack heated air (waste heat from the engine) had been blown through for four days, and then for another two days and a half cold air or ordinary atmospheric air had been blown through, Mr Crosbie said. This had had the effect of reducing moisture content from 28 to 30 per cent to 18 per cent to 22 per cent, with the latter figure

being for bales on the outer part of the stack. Altogether the fan had been used for 150 hours. At another site on the station an axial flow fan powered by a six horsepower electric motor was seen. It was also being used to dry a batch of hay on the Dutch system. As there was no waste heat available for this unit the drying time was expected to be longer, but nonetheless the total cost would be within the practical range, Mr Crosbie said. This was a type of fan

for use on farms where hay only was being dried and there was three-phase power. Mr Crosbie said that advantages of the Dutch system were that because of the low air flow required the fan cost was low and when the drying was completed the hay did not have to be shifted. In other systems of drying the hay had to be handled twice and more expensive drying units were involved. This system called for no special walls or drying floor.