WOOL SALES POSTPONED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17631, 18 November 1920, Page 7

WOOL SALES POSTPONED

NORTH ISLAND FIXTURES.

DECISION OF THE BUYERS.

NOT SUFFICIENT OFFERING.

The first round of wool sales for the North Island nas been abandoned. Information was received yesterday by the chairman of the Auckland Woolbrokers' Association. Mr. H. R. Wood, that a meeting of the wool buyers had been held in Christchurch and the buyers had decided not to attend any of the first sales fixed for the North Island centres. It was stated that the decision "was reached because of the general advice of outsiders to growers to hold their wool resulting in small offerings coming forward at the first sales.

the sale at Timaru which was fixed for to-day had been abandoned prior to the meeting of buyers. The sales affected by the decision of the buyers are :—Wellington, November 22; Auckland. November 25; Wanganui, November 26: Napier, November 30; Gisborne, December 1.

The dates fixed for the second round of sales will be adhered to and the nest sale will be held in Christchurch on December 7. The first Auckland sale will therefore be held on February 3. the date originally fixed for the second sale.

POSITION OF THE GROWERS.

NO SERIOUS INCONVENIENCE.

Referring to the abandonment of the first series of North Island wool sales, Mr. A. A. Ross, president of the Auckland Farmers' Union, said the decision of the buyers was probably justified. The offerings at the first sales would doubtless be affected by the desire of growers to obtain a good idea of market conditions before submitting their wool. In the event of the wool remaining unsold, storage charge would be accumulating, and it was better to hold the wool at home than to risk substantial freight and storage charges. Another factor in keeping down the offerings, as far as Auckland was concerned, said Mr. Ross, was the delay in shearing operations this season as a result of broken weather. The weather had been ideal for the growth of grass' but bad for shearing. He added that he did not think the wool growers would be seriously inconvenienced by the postponement of the sales. Some of the farmers would, perhaps, require to finance on their clips. They would probably .have to be content with fairly small advances as compared with requisition prices, but most of them had anticipated a drop in values. By the time the sales were resumed if might be possible to form a more accurate estimate of values than was possible at present. the wool position generally Mr. Ross said that though the production of wool apparently was greater than the demand-at present, these conditions might be changed before , long. This possibility seemed to be the only justification for endeavouring to hold this season's clip, and so add to the present accumulations. The decrease in wool consumption was largely due to the Continental countries being out of the market. Many of the woollen mills in France had been destroyed, and had not yet been reconstructed. Germany .apparently was unable to purchase wool. Even in New Zealand looms were idle owing to suitable labour not being available. He had no doubt that the Continental countries would again come Into the market, and the surplus wool stocks would, gradually be absorbed. In his opinion, however, wool prices for some time were bound to be considerably lower than they had been during the last few years. He added that he agreed with the opinion expressed by • Sir Thomas Mackenzie that the Imperial authorities were largely to blame for .the decreased, consumption of wool. From what lie could learn the Imperial authorities had placed very high values on the. wool they offered for sale as compared with the prices they gave for it. This-had no doubt greatly buying on the part of the woollen manufacturers, with the result that the accumulations were much greater than they should have been. Another result was that the prices of clothing had been much inflated.