WOOL SALES

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 58, 6 September 1916, Page 8

WOOL SALES

INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT PURCHASE

COLONIAL WOOLS ENHANCED IN PRICE. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.). (Received September 6, 3 p.m.) LONDON, sth September. At the wool sales 8229 bales were catalogued, of which 3121 bales were from New Zealand. There was a large attendance. The wool was a very inferior selection, and competition was somewhat slack.

Best crossbreds recovered from a halfpenny to a penny from the July closing rates. Slipes were very firm; merinos * and all other sorts were unchanged.

There was a decidedly more hopeful feeling in crossbreds, mainly because during the last few days the Government has commenced to make deliveries of a portion of the English clip; which was bought at lower levels than the current rates for colonial wool. To everybody's surprise the invoices show that the Government is charging about 4d a lb more than the maximum rates paid to the English fanner. This naturally enhances the value of all colonial wools and is causing a reaction. In reply to an enquiry by the Colonial Wool Merhants' Association to the Board of Trade, the Director of Army Contracts writes that the Department has at present no intention of buying the colonial wool clip. The position as regards the supply of wool is, however, being carefully watched, and notice will be given to the trade of any action that may be decided upon.