THE HOME MARKETS

Evening Star, Issue 19765, 16 January 1928, Page 5

THE HOME MARKETS

APPLE PROSPECTS DISCUSSED BRADFORD AND THE WOOL TRADE AUSTRALIA’S WIRE INDUSTRY STILL EXPANDING Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 14. (Received January 16, at 8.5 a.m.) The Stock Exchange opened the year quietly so far as the gilt-edged market was concerned, chief interest centring in what measure of success attended the conversion of portion of the Government loan. This closed on Wednesday, but the result will not be announced till the 18th inst. It is believed that the result was fairly satisfactory, and this should have a good effect.

The announcement yesterday of a new loan for India of £7,500,000 at -H per cent, at 91} came as a surprise, but it had little effect on prices except of the older Indian stocks, which showed sharp falls. There is talk of a South Australian loan coming shortly, but is not expected till the Indian loan is out of the way. In view of the news received from Australia that the apple crops in all the Australian States will probably be abundant, the importers are not very sanguine about realising high prices throughout the season, but as one leading firm points out in its circular: “ The Australian fruit should not meet much competition, as the American crop is less than half the normal one, and there seems little prospect of any American apples being on the market when the first Australian fruit arrives. If there are any apples then available in the United States we feel certain that the demand there will be sufficient to justify keeping them for local consumption. There is more money in America than in England, and when it comes to a question of who will pay the higher price the American will always win. At present very few American apples are being shipped, as our prices are not equal to those realised in the American markets. There is unlikely to be any competition from English or Continental apples, as these were generally inferior and had to be sold as quickly as possible. Everything, therefore, seems to point to a satisfactory result for the first Australian shipments] but against this must be set the general poor demand for all classes oi fruit now noticeable, and shippers have lost heavily.” WOOL. At the annual meeting of the British Wool Federation at Bradford Mr William Hunter (president) said that the recent criticism by Australian growers of the Bradford importers’ attitude towards some types of wool produced in Australia was ill-founded and entirely unwarranted. The members of the British Wool Federation advisedly criticised the change which took place in the character ol the New Zealand clip after 1921. At that time there was a large accumulation of New Zealand wool of the Lincoln character, for which there was a very limited outlet, and many New Zealand growers introduced the romney strain in their flocks in order to produce wooi ol a character which was then in greater demand for hosiery purposes. To-day the Now Zealand growers are expressing gratitude to tuo wool users for pointing out the lolly of their ways. The clip is rapidly being improved, and wider uses are being found for it. Twenty years ago Gape wool was regarded only as a by-product suitable for certain inferior classes ol goods, but they could testily to the great improvement that had taken place in recent years. There was a demand for wool to produce light fabrics, and if that was not forthcoming from Australia the requirements of the trade would have to be satisfied elsewhere. Their most serious criticism ol Australian wool was that it was becoming tippy. The fibre was not ol the same diameter from the llesh end to the tip of the staple. In view of the grants made by Australian growers and brokers towards the establishment ol a research association there was no reason why the difficulties in connection with Australian wool should not be eliminated and an improved standard adopted by those who had the interests of the wool-using community at heart. WINE. Some idea of the marvellous growth ol the Australian wine trade may be gathered Iron' the annual returns just issued, which show that the imports in 1927 were more than lour times greater than those of 1025. Last year’s impo> -s were nearly 4,250, OUlgal, out of tota imports from all countries of 18,500,000 gal Portugal, with C,500,000ga1, was the only country to exceed Australia, which for the first time beat France, from which country 3,183,000 gal were imported. The quantity of Australian wine entered lor homo consumption also showed an enormous increase, being 2,300,000 gal in 1927 compared with 782,0U(1gal in 1925, whereas Portuguese wine showed a decrease of nearly 1,000,000ga1.