THE BROKERS' ATTITUDE

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 3 January 1910, Page 6

THE BROKERS' ATTITUDE

QUESTION OF SALES

The wool-brokers of Wellington regard the attitude of the Railway Department with a considerable degree of satisfaction. It means a certain regulation of wool traffic which was bound to come, and which is necessary in the interests of all concerned.

One broker declared the position was becoming intolerable. Instead of the. sales -being spread over several months they were threatening to become concentrated into as many weeks. This movement would have to be checked. Already at the leading Wellington <?ale twice the amount of wool was sold in the one day as was offered in London, where the day's offering is limited to 12,000 bales. Everything, of course, encouraged the marketing of the wool within a period of a few weeks. The means of communication are being improved all over the country, with the result that there is no delay in getting wool out, and given a spell of fine weather, like we have been recently experiencing, the whole wool of the island can be landed on the market within a few weeks.

The grower naturally wishes to get his wool sold as rapidly as possible, and does all in his power to get it to Wellington. The broker is between "the devil and the deep sea." He does not want to tell the grower he cannot store his wool, and yet he does not want it at the time. Thus he appreciates the action of the department.

One great weakness, said another agent of the grower, is that it is all handled by the Harbour Board, and the brokers have to take delivery from the board. Thus if the board's stores are congested the whole arrangements for handling the wool are upset. This broker regards the action of the Railway Department as a very sensible idea. It is a necessary provision to make a perfectly clear position. The catalogues for a big approaching sale are closed (there was no congestion whatever up to Christmas) and it is not wise, and in some cases impossible, to take any further wool into the stores between the closing of the catalogue and the delivery of the bulk of the wool after the sale. , A third broker declared that the; Kaiiway Department had been straining every nerve to rush the wool into the city, even putting on heavy Sunday trains to do so, making-no allowance for the ama§rnt the stores could carry or the trade could handle. The business should be catered to in a more intelligent manner. _ If the present rushing of wool into Wellington stores regardless of everything is continued, declared one of the oldest, brokers on the market, it simply means that some system of regulation will have to be brought about. If all the wool is to be brought into Wellington within the space of a few weeks it must add to the expense'of marketing wool, for the cost to the railways will be increased, enormous stores will have to be erected (to remain idle for the greater part of the year). The fact, of course, that the wool is in Wellington will not hasten its sale, as the buyers have to visit all the leading selling centres in the Dominion, and can only give a certain time to valuing and buying at each. As the wool being offered increases in bulk the sales will have, to be extended over a longer period. Who is to bring about the regulation is not quite clear. This broker concluded by congratulating I the department on taking the action it did, and which, he thought, it should have done before.