A BUOYANT MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 4

A BUOYANT MARKET

Dominion wool-growers should regard the future of their market with satisfaction. Notwithstanding the gloomy reports from Bradford of severe competition in piece goods from France, goods offered and sold at prices no British manufacturer can'touch, the September series of sales in London have closed at an advance in price of fully 5 per cent, on the last rates. Crossbred wools, in which New Zealand is interested, share in the advance, fine crossbreds, in some instances, reaching a premium of *l\ per cent. The former great accumulation of wool held by the British-Australian Wool Realisation Association, or " Bawra," is no longer a menace • in fact, 98 per cent, of the quantity it offered at the sales just comcluded was disposed of. Next month the new season's clip will be coming into the local market, the sales opening in Christchurch on 16th November. Before that date the London October sales will have been held, and the market tested.; but the prospects for at least the«maintenance of the current prices are good. Bradford top-makers, however, continue to report slow trade, the latest advice stating that they are " indifferent." It is a curious position: Bradford manufacturers inactive, and the wool market, speaking relatively, buoyant.. The New Zealand sales of, last season disclosed the fact thai if jetuEM. & gr.cjwete

were most'satisfactory, this was due, in the main, to Continental buying, combined with United States' demand for wools suitable for th»fc market, at - excellent prices; whereas Bradford^ buyers were hampered by severely restricted limits. The wool market, then, will require to be closely watched by growers and others interested from now onwards, until, at any rate, the 1923-24 clip is disposed of.