CHRISTCHURCH WOOL SALES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 1 December 1927, Page 7

CHRISTCHURCH WOOL SALES

HIGH PRICES MAINTAINED' (By Telegraph—Special to "The Mail") GITRI STCHuicH, 30 th Nov. At to-day's wool sale more general competition from all round the' room seemed to have the effect of livening up. The. Yorkshire representatives, though it was obvious that their instructions were to buy within certain sharply defined limits, some of them were not able to buy more than 25 per cent, of what they purchase usually. When the fine wools were offered there was keen competition. The halfbred growers, were pleased when line after line went up to over 20d, but some of them had placed very high reserves on their lots. Whether they have been well advised to. do so only time will tell.

The speculators held off to-day, confident in the belief that prices will come bade, though many were surprised that halfbred lines did not sell" better.

It appears likely that the Dominion will receive between £1,000,000 and £2,000,000 more for the present clip than for the last, for Id represents the best part of £1,000,000 to the growers. The growers may reasonably expect that prices will stabilise at Id to 2d better than last season. Even to-day there was evidence that some growers view the future with more optimism than close examination of,the facts warrant, as the more than occasional passings showed. Just whether they are wise is very doubtful.

The first catalogue contained many halfbred lines which those responsible for valuing were evidently over optimistic with. The first lot was passed at 19d, the second sold at 23d, and soon there came a string of passings from 20d to 22£d, and there were many comments from the buyers.

“Don’t bother offering it,” shouted one, “tell us your reserves.” This condition did not last long and the sale was a free one with a comparatively small percentage of passings, and these were mostly confined to the halfbred lots. ,

Buying was fairly general round the room, but the Continental men made the pace, particularly for French houses, but many prominent Bradford houses rarely had their names called. Quite a number of lines fell to the hid of Australian houses, but the ultimate destination of some of these purchases may be Japan. America purchased lines suitable to the Boston trade, particularly bright hogget wools where the length was not too great. Generally the wool catalogued was not quite'as bright as last year, but it contained little wool that may be described as tender, and what was inclined this way was mainly hogget.

SYDNEY .SALES CLOSE

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Australian' & N.J. Cable Association)

SYDNEY, 30th Nov. The fifth series of wool sales closed. The sixth starts on the 12th December. The market closed strong with general competition, particularly . Continental and Japanese, at prices ruling during the week. Comebacks and crossbreds were particularly strong.