King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, April 14, 1936. THE WOOL SALES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4833, 14 April 1936, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, April 14, 1936. THE WOOL SALES.

With the end of the wool sales for the season, growers can review the position with some satisfaction. Some may have expected higher prices, but it can be said that these were very much better than the two previous seasons. The aggregate number of bales sold this season was about 700,000 —a record for New Zealand—as compared with 479,797 bales sold last season. A fairly large quantity of wool in the recent sales represented a carry-over from the preceding year when prices were strongly against sellers. This season there was a most satisfactory clearance, and this will materially help to maintain prices for the sales starting next November. Last season the total receipts for wool sold in the Dominion up to 31st March amounted to £3,383,765; this year the returns for the same period totalled £9,000,000. This means that growers will have over £5,500,000 more to spend. Much of this money will be required to pay off liabilities incurred during the period of low prices, but this will help to stabilise the position of sheep farmers and save a lot of financial anxiety. The increased returns will put a considerable amount of money into circulation, a thing that will benefit all other sections of the community. A cheering aspect of the wool situation was the steadiness of the market and the strength of the demand for the raw material. Australian sales during the season just ended increased by 270,000 bales as compared with the previous season, and even in that country there has been a good clearance, which should help to stabilise future sales in this Dominion; as there will be no accumulation in either country. The improved position of the wool market should also help the dairying industry. During the period of low prices many farmers switched over to cows, but now that wool has taken a turn for the better there will be a swing over to sheep again and so decrease the quantity of butter exported from that country. While the demand for wool has been keen and is likely to be so for next season, it has to be realised that many European countries are straining every effort to manufacture a synthetic substitute for wool. So far these efforts have not been a marked success, but there is always the danger that they will find a substitute and the posijtion must be carefully watched. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and every effort should be made to improve the quality of our wool. In Australia the sheep farmers have agreed to a small levy for research work and advertising the benefits of natural wool as against the synthetic article, and the New Zealand farmers would be well advised to co-operate in this scheme.