Better Sale Expected

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31502, 17 October 1967, Page 32

Better Sale Expected

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Oct. 16, Few of the 18,843 bales of wool to be auctioned at the Auckland sale on Wednesday are expected to go into the Wool Commission’s stockpile. Most of the offering is of a type which sold above the 25c floor price at the Napier sale on Friday. The president of the Auckland Woolbrokers’ Association, Mr N. O. Thomas, said

the reduction in the reserve price to 16.25 c per lb should allow the trade to take up the bulk of the balance. The offering comprises 60 per cent hogget wool, 15 per cent second shear, 10 per cent crutchings, and 15 per cent made up of some full fleeces and Hie usual oddments. --The quantity Is down on the quota of 22,000 bales because of shearing delays because of wet weather in September. Mr Thomas said the hogget wools were of good quality and included some excellent

lines, the only reservation being that these wools had tended to become coarser than in past years. Based on the Napier sale, these wools should sell to a good demand. First Of Its Kind The Auckland sale will be the first in which the new reserve price will operate. The floor price will remain at 25c and the Wood Commission will maintain this with subsidy payments to growers. Mr Thomas said the Commission’s stated intention was to get this year’s clip into production—an objective it was failing to achieve with the floor price scheme. One of the problems was that the world price was less than the New Zealand price. In deciding on the reserve price and a system of subsidy payments, the Commission had to consider the level at which growers could exist. “The whole textile industry has been in a recession,” he said, “but there are signs that the position is improving in the American carpet manufacturing industry.

“Cross-bred wool is moving more freely and this, with the new reserve price, should put confidence in the trade.”