FIVE MINUTES AT A WOOL SALE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 121, 20 May 1909, Page 3

FIVE MINUTES AT A WOOL SALE.

:^E'W.E;, in Otago; Daily Times.) Successive/choruses of • wild howls and diabolical shrieks .- a long, low roam reeking with the smoke oi Sg tofaccS, and filledwith^ burned,; prosperous sheep-farmers,. sevSi rows of buyers and buyers' ag, Sants, seated tier upon tier in M^ : form of a half-circle; a group of fw-< per^clerks, scribbling away as uf Kw were the last day .and they had yet to prepare autographies l£r Gabriel's inspfect on; .Wndry^in-, tellieent dogs, revelling m -the conSn and the clamour, and arranging fights under. catcn T as-catch-can, rules and ihe buyers' and raised on a dais at one -and ■■■of the rJom Hke a Burmese god presiding o?Sr 'a religious orgie, Hi is greyf and weather-tanned, with Nature's like wn, and^ a. voice^as Sit and suggestive as that of ,a woman alone in Jte moonlight with her ' lover ''A' striking personality, mlieftfaz^etf strength of will, and an^SS Jksourcefulnm that-a rintt of ■■•-'■ superlatively ...smart buyers S^&a%g-^can /o^a^ a^ ,specV and the^ biggest 'bMs iw'are to be given away. ™«$m gentlemen," says the, aucIhantf whose servant>the auctioneer Estate that lot 274 comprises two •bales of dirty,^ matted wool.. The •Kers langui&r sharpen their penci£ and light-tW Pipes: they don* want dirty, matted wool. Come, genttemen^' and the suave vqicj entices a bid, and the recording clerks oSthedais.glance expectantly along the rows of keen faces. . Come, lentlemen!" * "Thruppence' says a mSk man at one end-a fellmonger's representative. Another man glances up sharply: he also is a, Wai buyer. "One?;" he raps out., "Three-one, calls the iron-grey .to/'come, ;gen ; tlemen." No. further bid, ;^rth^ , says the auctioneer^; "Lot 275 now, and the -clerks mark it Q down that Smith has bought Lot 274 at 3Jd pcrs lb. Lot 275, apparently, con-. tains two bales of greasy. and matted, but the ."big" men are . now beriding tensely over their catalogues, and one at once ventures a, "four" bid. Others join in, and bd per lb is realised. "But," you .naturally ask, "why, the different prices ? There is little between dirty and matted and greasy and matted. . And you learn that for the past two or three days those buyers. have been clad in coarse;suits comprehensively yclept "overalls," and, so protected, have personally, become acquainted with all the bales now on offer. Holes haye been cut for .their accommoda- : tio'n in the.sides of the wool-sacks, and many of them-r-it depends much on their consciences and to some .extent on their respective avoirdupois— nave crept right into the -bales'-in their anxiety to determine precisely the nature of their contents. Others are satisfied with a handful of wool drawn from the interior of the bale. Bui? every bale, when competition is keen and prices rule high, i 3 visited; and on1 the'data thus, obtained the buyer abases his values and makes his bids. Those well-groomed men therefore, who look as if they.might never have seen a bale and as it they knew not the forceful odour of undeansed wool—have valuable and strictly private information concerning almost every pound of the article put before them,- and that is why they give 6d- per lb f<?r the bales described as greasy and matted., Ihey have seen the wool and know , its actual value. ". I Without a moment's pause the. auctioneer has disposed of Lots 276 and 277. "Now," he says, "Lot 7—, and then his voice is drowned in the storm of noise that breaks out. If you have ever visited a dog show at a moment wheu the unhappy canines have in unison raised their voices, each indulging itself in the particular • bark or howl that it loves the best, you will be able accurately to describe the kind of interruption that bursts on the auctioneer. You may recognise something, resembling the sharp, staccato yelp of the terrier, the deep boom of the Newfoundland^ the hurried, determined baritone of ,the collie—all uniting in a concert that, to the surprised spectator, is absolutely appalling. Twenty men have bounded to their feet, and are leaning far over their desks, and, wildly yelling and gesticulating, are offering "Eight! Eight! Eight!" The Argus on the dais regards them attentively for a brief moment, and then, as if presenting a pistol, points at one. Immediately the sound changes, but its volume, not at all. ' Already'an alert Frenchman on a front seat—the buyers represent Eng-

lish,; {Continental, V and American houses—is in rtheJmiddle of a; vigorous solo, tsounding like "Woon.! Woon.l Woon!" (One—that is, eight-one: i.e., B£d.) He gets-a nod from the man on the dais, and in a flash a StQiit American, who has been declaiming "One," breaks into song. " ',Atf !'• he shouts, "'Aff ! 'Aff !" ([half", or two), and he catches the <jye of the auctioneer. "Three," calls one, and many of the noisest, beaten, but not subdued, sit down. "Nine,", shrieks another, and comparative quietness is restored. Then a big German. ventures ''Wblin!" and, at 9-Jd> Lot 278 becomes his. , _ Your 'catalogue tells you that Lot 278 is fine halfbred,; and the eagerness of, the buyers indicate its value, and at the. same time allows you to understand fhowi the sale is conducted. Each buyer, having personally inspected the bales, and having, with that exactness peculiar to his calling, noted the value of' the wool—let us say the figures are 8|d —ris in a position to bid. The wool is precisely, the class he requires, and during the salej of Lots 274-7', which he did not particularly want, he has been looking ahead, and is prepared on the instant to make, his bid for the de^ sired parcel. In accordance with the everlasting custom of exchange, he (the buyer) offers the seller Bd—which he knows is |d less than/the wool is worth to himi ,At the same]time, he knows that the lot is hungered for by most of the other buyers, and he is aware that the man who first catches' the auctioneer's eye gets /Credited the bid. Therefore his offer, so as not to be: ignored, musti not be too far, beneath the real\vadiie. of the wool, and (it must be slipped smartly in on to the man on the dais the very second he is done with Lot 277. Thus, the chances are that, at the same, moment, each buyer starts his train of offers in the immediate vicinity of Bd, prepared to switch on to B^d the moment 'competition runs rife. W^hen there is keener competition than usual at the wool sales the buyer, to gain a fair share of .what, is going, must be a 'man 'of extraordinary smartness and presence of mind. He must think as quick as light and,act as quick as thought, and he must make rig mistake. Two or three slight miscalculations might mean a loss of £100 to his firm. There may be 20 lots offered consecutively, each one of which is urgently wanted in a score of places, and the buyer must, in the fraction, of a second between the sale ;of one lot and the commencement of another, consider the actual value of the wool, the extent, of his purchases to time, and the tenor of the sale; and, the moment the lot is called, must make his offer. Each man, he knows, is not prepared to go beyond a certain figure, and, as the sum .'to which each buyer limits himself is probably identical, the great struggle is to be first to catch the eye of the auctioneer.; Thus the fiendish choruses of yells and howls,, punctuated with the steady, emotionless tones of the auctioneer, are explained. The buyers do not trouble one whit about their appearance, and are qifite careless of

the fact that they are usually the centre of a ring of delighted spectators. They screech and bellow in the. manner most likely to catch the attention of the deity on the dais, and supplement their vocal efforts, by the energetic waving of an arm, or even of both arms. The most popular form of procedure is that of standing up and repeatedly yelling a number—like "Half! Half! Half!" —and at each syllable violently to gesticulate. The perspicacious reader may picture the scene for himself. ' Of course, mistakes are made, and then—woe betide" the blunderer! Each buyer, having an estimate of the value of the different lots before him, jealously watches his figures and the selling prices, and if a purchaser, whether' through excitement or bad judgment, pays more for the wool than it is obviously worth, one of the beaten men promptly gives freedom to a tentative whistle. It is a wonderfully eloquent whistle, expressing disgust, astonishment, amusement, or anger! It sounds like "Whee-hoo"— the *'hoo" portion being prolonged according to the strength of the emotion indicated. If the other buyers arc of the same opinion they join joyously in the chorus, and the unfortunate" speculator meekly lowers his head and hides his confusion under the pretence of doing an enormous amount of scribbling on his cata-/ logue. You may remark as you leave the sale that wool-buying seems strenuous work, and then you will be told that while it lasts it undoubtedly is. A wool sale has lasted from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m.—l 9 hours-r—and the woolbuyers grimly sit it out, with two or three brief intervals for meals, and as grimly do battle for the hundreds and thousands of bales of New Zealand's staple product that are put before them. ..•■; <