WOOL AND ITS SALE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, 23 January 1907, Page 2

WOOL AND ITS SALE.

HOW BUYERS OPERATE. (From the "Canterbury Times.') Jt was Artemus Ward who, having described how he bought a faijpi stocked it with sheep, but finally came to grief because his dogs misbehaved, patlrtically ended his account wi'h the words. "as a sheepist, I am jiot a success." Canterbury men, having mastered the intricacies of the doy's business mind, have lecorr.e great succefte* be sheepists. TJj j sheep is not the end and a|m 6£ the breeder, tbmigh. because as important as the mutton is the wool. Ash ep can only give mutton once, but he can supply Beveral instalments of wool. Consequently there are, in addition to sbeepists, woolists as well. Whenever the wool clip is ready for sale, Hie woaliat comgs in his dozens to buy, and he does a great deal of hard work while he does so. The professional wool- 1 uyer is an interesting personage. He, ar.'ives ii) the colony, "sniat t, alert, well dressed, with his head full of business, and of ability to judge in its greasy dirtiness the value wiol will have when it is being made up into stuff*. When the clip h. brought into the stqres. and the day pf the sale approaches, he puts on a sujt of \yhi!g Qceralls, bpcauso wool i-i not clean to handle, and takus a bqok wherein are characters like crosses and diamonds, names under and over bare, and initials from all over the a'phubet. He goes into the big stores, Wlierp the bales stand in long trebjo ranks, in double rows. Men with knjv'es attack the ends of the bales, and put ti langular flaps out. In go the buyers' bands, cut comes tfoe wool. In a ljttle while tha oiderly vows of brown hojes. lire hidden under a cataract of wool, apparently pouring dpvrn pn tp \\\e floor, where the buyers, have dropped what they have pulled out Most of tup , buyers have special lines that they want, and copfjuo their attentions to those sorts of wool, but ijjerp are soaie wools Hint nil the buyers are looking pu£ for., und ovoiyor.e of them drags out a few liaiidfnls. (Jsually thja proceeding ig CBndnptod ip a fairjy de.cprp.us fashion, but tlioro are occas pns whpn a frenzied limn will olive jnto a bale till there is Itltlo viaib|o but a pajr of wagging feet and tho lower prida pf wlrfe trousers. So, at all ovonts, say the morry ainrng tho wool store habitues. Tley are a ohoorfnl frntornity, these buyers Qqining from all pvef the tyorjd, they »ro friond|.v and jocund in fhe eTftreme, ] save wken Inpy are in thp mjd^t oj | work. Then their biains buaz with figures, and they jot dowp opposite each Jot in their books the value up to which ttjey we ' prepared tp go. Affsrwards, when thpy have filled up f^heii; bqqkg, and reduoed the sto r g to an appea'rarics of almost complete ph.aos, {,hey Vetjre, put on their ordinary garb, end repair to the place w«ere tt^sale itself ja hald. There is lie wqo| thgrp. Therp are jub| scab, and auctioneers that take turns a| gelling. Here it is that the buyers' true cu&ractflrg come out. They sit •tiH, in an impatient silence, pulling at a'metaphprica) Igagh, until t' c luotionee^ says " thirty-five " or some other number. Instantly every buyer yells at the top of his voice. Me jumps to his feet, ojit a ehaking-hand, yells, | s.crean&* hjnJseH into a frenzy with his |erie» 6f '"Fenr' '" "Alf '7 and other remarki that tlm PH^jder bas'iift fcofteeption of, He is no mora a man jn hjs voice. He U a deg, a wi'4 beast, any.thing that is not human, tiUl top auctioneer's hand falls an 4 be sap pf>mg buyer's name. Thero is no appeal. That name is the name of the man who gets' $£ yofi}. He made the top bid. AnjiJ, cflnsid,erjng f /hat thp wool is uot Vprygreajt jnpmpurit; a'nij that fpr that bid tee buyer dpes nojt get a great jsdinmisgion, and that there will ne a great many other bids that will bring him nothing, he deserved to be allowed to have (,hat bjf of yool. It is certain that in the coukp of the jreap np body of men in ChFUtshurch ever make sp much noise with their voices as a roqm fujl of wool-buyers, and, If they did, the polipe would surely interfere. After the sale there is little loss ol time. The bales are repaired, the wool that was pulled-out being put back, and Uie i>*ipSi placed two together, are, dumped in bydcauljp presses into less fjian half' tneir' op' size. They are burned' to st^aj^ers, and"Ue3pdtclled >to the headqpgrtgrs the men Vhb'liave bought them, fop eonyerjion jnlit? tweeds and serges. The ueaesfui sheep loses his wa: in coat by violence, but that violence is as not'iing compared with I the way the coat ie treated, afterwards, and to the violence of the hurry methods that surround it from beginning to end of its transference from the back of the quadruped to the back of I -t£e muc, .