WOOL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 292, 14 December 1869, Page 2

WOOL.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercautile Agency report as follows: — - From the date of our last advice to the close of the August -September Series on the. 2 1st ult. we have no change of moment to record in the position of the Wool Market. The French competition, though of somewhat tardy accession, when once initiated was well maintained, and being as regards New Zealand Wools particularly directed upon greasy d<scriptions, secured for them relatively much better prices than for fleece- washed and scoured parcels, a comparison with the latter which throughout the sales were more or less neglected, being especially favorable. The result of the Series then has been to establish an advance in prices for — Greasy Wool, Id to l£d. per lb.; Fleece-washed Clothing, Id. to ljd.do.; Fleece-washed Combing, l£d. to 2d. do.; Fletce-washed Scoured, §d. to Id. do, as compared with the quotations current in Jane for similar classes. The general character of the New Zealand clips of this season's shipment has proved fully up to the average, and the only defect of importance we have had reason to notice — and that confined to particular instances — has been a tendency to weakness in the staple, in the case of some well-grown flocks so marked as to j deprive them to a great extent of their combing properties. The adoption of the practice of hot-water-washing, though not so general as in Australia, has constituted this season a new feature in the New Zealand shipments, and the manner in which many clips so treated have been sent to market deserves all praise. It may not, however, be inopportune to warn flockmasters that the use of this method, when carried to the extent of purging all the yolky secretions from the fleece, deprives the st«ple of many of these properties most valued by customers, and that the excessive appiication of alkaline matter is becoming, a subject of increasing complaint by manufacturers.