DISPOSAL OF SHEEP

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3492, 30 October 1926, Page 7

DISPOSAL OF SHEEP

SALK BY AUCTION. SOME REGRETTABLE ABUSES. The auction sale is a recognised part of the live stock business, says tho “Otago Times.” It was established to meet a definite need and, properly conducted, it servos a very useful purpose. It is a convenient way for the seller to dispose of his surplus, and it affords tho buyer a selection from which to make his purchases. More than that, this method of public appraisal establishes live stock .values that very naturally are an important factor in governing private sale prices. The public sale is and always will be to some extent, a gamble, a fact which doubtless adds to its attractiveness for many. The man who sells expects his animals to bring pretty well what they are worth, and perhaps more. The buyer goes with the possibility in mind that be may buy for icss than the actual value of the animal. Either may happen and often docs, but as a rule prices paid at wcll-conducfed sales pretty closely approximate current values.

The auction sale is supposed to be and usually is a place where tho buyer sets the prices, where buyer bids against buyer and where tho animal goes to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, however, like everything else ,the sale ring has been subject to abuses. More than one buyer has bid against the auctioneer or a by-bidder and, as a result, has paid more for his animal than ho would have done in an honest sale. True, the auctioneer or by-biddcr sometimes overreaches himself and the animat is loft without a buyer, but it is usually understood in advance that ho is not to lose because of that. There arc those who consider tho smart auctioneer is tho one who can "run” the buyer farthest without losing him. Every business seemingly has to have a few such men and tho cattle business is no exception.

Such practices are as regrettable as they arc unnecessary. To be exact, they are crooked, and the. sooner the auction sale is rid of them, the better. The gamble in a wellconducted sale is all that is needed; the use of a “marked deck,” will, if continued, work a very considerable injury to the business. It has eome to be quite a recognised practice that the auctioneer should start the bidding to prevent the sale from dragging, but it is neither necessary nor honest that he do any raising of bids thereafter. The best auctioneers approve of this practice of “kicking the, bids,’’ and scarcely those few who do arc in the same class with the. sellers who insist on having their animals “protected” either by auctioneer or bybidder. Neither belongs In the business, and the business will be a lot better oft without them. If our more reputable auctioneer's took a. definite stand and refused to “help” the bidding at any time, they would find the reaction entirely profitable to them.

Auction sales, like any other business, are about as honest as the men back of them want them to bo. A very large majority of the animals are. sold “on the square.” tint about every so often someone seemingly cannot resist the temptation to break over, and that one occasional instance hurts the whole business. The sooner that sale managers, sellers and auctioneers lighten their linos to prevent those occasional lapses, the better they will find their business to be.