THE WOOL COMMANDEER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 6

THE WOOL COMMANDEER

Sir, —We have been officially informed that the wool commandeer is practically complete, tho requisition covering 501,301 bales, assessed at £11,053,466. Tho commandeered price, engraven upon the hearts of cvory sheep-farmer by the ultra-Radi-cal element in' Parliament, was 55 per cent, in excess of the value of the 191314 clip. Now, the Year Book assesses the shipments for that year at £9,318,114, and the addition of 55 per cent, gives us a total of £14,443,123. The excess actually received over the Year Book assessment for 1913-14 is £1,735,352, or no less than £3,389,657 .short of the 55 per cent., and works out only 18 per cent, over 1913-14. It is evident, thorefore, that the basic value has been erroneously fixed, and anyone who cares to examine their London account sales will find that last year's returns were far short of 55 per cent., while some were short of tho average of 18 per cent, shown above.

This shortage of three and a third million pounds sterling will recur every year, until the error is corrected, and is likely to have more far-reaching effects than the reduced income to tho sheep-farmer, upon which it is not my intention to make any commont. It ought, howover, to be rectified, if only for Stato reasons, as tho value of our imports is rapidly overtaking the limited values of our primary and only oxports, and ns wool is lighter this year than last, the shortage may bo accentuated.

The Order-in-Council fixes Dominion auction prices for 1913-14 as a basic value, and as proof that they are only speculative values, it will be sufficient for mo to stato tliat wool of this particular clip, for which IOJd. per lb. was offered hero, and Gd. for pieces, realised for the owner in London 13Jd. per lb., all oyer, including pieces. The Imperial Government must have experienced a pleasant surprise at the low prices fixed by the assessors here, as War Office offers must have been based upon London values. They would know nothing about prices current in the Dominion, and {'no follow

can understand" why tlioy were fixed upon hero. I saw it stated in Parliament that agents, storing and handling the wool on behalf of tno Imperial Government received 16s. per hale by way of commission. This amounts to a trifle over four hundred thousand pounds sterling, or 3 2-3 per cent, on the assessed value of tho wool; and if farniors have como short of their expectations it oannot bo said that stock and station agents have not been well paid. Their usual commission for handling and selling wool is 2 per cent., on. I suppose, less than half the Dominion clip, on this sido, while this year they havo received 3 2-3 per cent, upon the whole, just about 56 per cent, advance on ordinary commission. I have often heard it said that "the diol was kind to his ain folk," and I just wonder who was at tho elbow of tbo Acting-Primo Minister when he signed the Order-in-Counoil fixing Dominion instead of London values for our wool, and agreed to tho commissions payable for handling it.—l am, etc., , AGRICOLA.