Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1911. WOOL PROSPECTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 21 April 1911, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1911. WOOL PROSPECTS.

THE LONDON POSITION I'K MARCH. ONE of the factors making for tlhe restoration, of commercial and industrial buo.ya.ney in. New Zealand ishoui'd be the continued activity in the demand for wool in, Europe. Writing cm ivuarcli 10 with regard to the second' series of colonial wool sales in London, a correspondent says that advioas from. France and Germany are indicative of a steady maintenance of the. improved conditions previously existing there. Without there being an.y signs of excibeimieait or hurry, consumers purchase to cover requirement® just- as they arise, the point of initerefvt in the situation .being -hat, while individual transactions' are small as compared with what they often are, , they are so numerous and frequent aa to amount .in the aggregate, to quite a re.'pccitable figure. In the Mazaniet market the turnover tends, to expand l , the north of France showing metre ditipositicn to operate, particularly i.n the coarse qualities of crossbred and in washed pulled merino sorts. Bn.glii.Mh purchasers confine their operationis to a 2a.rge extent to the best pulled descriptions from- Australia, and even more pronouncedly frcim Monte Video. Large transactions in such wool recently have been brought to a conclusion', an,d the conditioning house is, in consequence, kept- very busy and full of consignments awaiting their turn. Russia is also gaid to be an active buyer, showing interest bor both com'bing and carding descriptions.

11l London and other terminal markets in; the first week of March, contmue.s the correspondent, prices showed an inclination to "sag." But the course of events at Antwerp caused: a. rally, and quotations were maintained. Fully 6000 bales, mainly River relate produce, were brought to the hammer in March in the- leading wool entrepot of Belgium, and a larger proportion thereof tlhan usual changed hands. This, of iteolf, constitutes an enciouraging feature, and so is the cause of its accomplwibaiieint, namely, a rise of 5 to 10 par cent, in merino and 5 per cent, in cross/bred'. Theee- advances are on the rates established at the previous auctions, which, it must not be forgotten, took place early in January, that is, coincidentally with the period of aciute depression. *■»*'** On the eve of the- March, sales in London wool-users naturally were not disposed to hurry themselves into buying with a large quantity e'euning un- . dor the hammer, in addrition to supplies already available through direct liimportatnen. Moreevor, while British spinners and manufacturers continue, for the most part, busily employed and have

a (oiifii-di'.M'a.bl-o weight of orders oi\ I'.hoir bonks, ma.ny of them Ji.ro. not uiulr.-r the p.iTis-suro t'.;i difili\H'.r which they oxperj(iiicod t'hiuiig'hout nearly the whole of last- year. Still. tiiJti-iiitc the wrii'slecl and wioollen trade as a wholo. in England. Scotland, and Ireland, it cannot be described as being otnerwv.-'e than ill' good shap'e. Certainly the. volii.ii 10 of biisiivosis doing is decidedly above* the average of, n;iv, th-e past ten waai, a.nd although the miarg-'n of profit i.< not equal to that of the past 12 raonths, yet it is of respectable d.imensions. and. in some, bra mhos, very much more.

The position of spinners and ma-n-f mac. turor--. of coarse-fib red* wcol generally (continues the correspondent quoted'), is particularly goad in this respect. They arc fully occupied in turning out yarns and good.* at prices based on. a decidedly higher level than that ori which they ea.it purchase wool- and tops to-day. Even, if thi?y find it necessary to make concessions in. price to obtain new business, they can stiLl feed assured c-if it proving reanunisrative.

. Hence, the expectation in London on the eve of the sales which, began, on 14th ult. was that there would be no great cha.nge in values, but that prices o-f fin>3 raw material would tend in the upward direction ; these, of course, except the be<st combing sort?, going the other way. The large quantity of wool about to be offered at the March sales also helped to steady the demand, while such a steadiness in. no way indicated a falling off in milling activity or consuiCfpiiion. It should be rc.mem'bered that there were 232,C00 bales of colonial wool forward—lol,ooo ba.kis AuetlraCiiasn., 116,000 flJojes- Keiw Zealand, and 15,C00 bales South Afri-, can. In addition there were shipments froim Punta Arenas, 15,500 bales, a.nd from the Falkland Islands, 2000 bales, bringing the. grand total for auction up to wdll-nigh 250,00'Q bales. On the 232,000 bales colonial 120,000 bates were cros.-.brsd, and, of course, the Puinta Arenas and Falkland Islands Wools were also almost entirely of that character. Taking all things into coin si deration, therefore, the wool outlook lss)l month was a.r. bright as coic-niai producers could expect it to be after the long pei-icd of good prices that has prevailed.