MONEY FLOWS FREELY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20114, 27 November 1928, Page 12

MONEY FLOWS FREELY.

FEW MEN SPEND THOUSANDS. RIVALRY AT WOOL SALE. SCENES OF EXCITEMENT. A sum approaching £250.000 was spent at the Town Ilail last night. About a dozen men did most of the spending and nearly 1000 people watched them do it. It is not every day that gold flows so freely. " There is money in wool." Here was visible proof of the sagacity ot that say ing. Hundreds and thousands were bandied about from bench to bench with a reckless abandon that would make an Aberdonian perspire, and the mere exhilaration of it caused the hardened buyers to chuckle with suppiessod amuse mont. Even the spectators who, from personal motives or curiosity, gazed upon ' the spectacle as they might watch a bun fight at school, rocked with glee us the money poured out of invisible coffeis like water from a bucket Was not this a fitting sight to set before a king? When Auckland sets the scene for her wool sales (and, like those of Australia, they are world-famous) she opens the door i to as cosmopolitan a gathering of buyers as would be met with on a Parisian boule- . vard. The placid Vorkshireman. who puts Bradford on the map in terse monosyllables, rubs shoulders with burly Germans, beaming over horn-rimmed spectacles, excitable Frenchmen, who break unconsciously into (lallic witticisms under the stress of emotion, and a collection of Americans, Australians, Poles and Russians that might resemble the League of Nations at a birthday party. To Untold Heights. The bidding starts. The French are in it early. They make frantic efforts to keep prices down, only to find themselves over-bid in rises of a penny—a startling jump whore the bidding usually advances by farthings. Outbid by Bradford and Germany they quickly adapt themselves to the situation and, determined from the outset to set the pace, run up the figures until the benches are aghast. A long j drawn-out whistle, descending through the major and minor keys like tho escape of gas from a pricked balloon, expresses their amazement. It is the sort of sound one would expect to hear from a boxing crowd when the champion gets knocked out by an unknown tyro in the first round No one excels in the.io sibilant demonstrations better than a young German who wears a huge red dahlia in his buttonhole. Ho is up and down m his scat like a jack-ill the-box. bellowing at the auctioneer, his voice echoing above the pandemonium as tie excitedly foivos up the price faithing by farthing. When a lot is knocked down to him bis fa'p lights up with triumph; when he loses lio gazes upon his successful competitor with a look of mild rebuke, as though to sav, "How could you so offend me Frantic Rivalry. After the first hall-hour a Fienchnian takes his coat off. • It is waim. He is buying frantically now and the figuics soar higher and higher. A \orkshireman and two Germans are his most serious rivals. They stand up in their seats, tear the air madly with their arms and bawl like demons. "Seventeen, monsieur!" shrieks the Frenchman. The German is trying to say "half," but it sounds more like "oof," and so it goes on until, as the German calls the Frenchman gives a last despairing shriek and collapses over his bench like a shot rabbit. Then issues forth from his exhausted lips that weird alien whistle that tells the world of his defeat. The gallery is tickled to death and a buz/, of amused conversation echoes through tho hall. The buyers vigorously complain that they cannot hear themselves talk, and the auctioneer is obliged lo call for silence. A big German turns in his seat and scowls at the jpec.atois. "If you vant a show go to de pictures, he shouts, and the laughter breaks out again What the Bidding Means. Whv should a matter of a farthing or so occasion so rr.uch excitement ? It is all a matter of multiplication. A buyer who fancies, say, a lot comprising 20 bales, must part with £7 6s every time the man beside him raises the bid by Jd. Each lot he purchases may cost him £2OO, £3OO, £SOO, or £7GO, according to tho number of baits and th« quality of the wool, and a rise in price of a few pence will mean the expense of hundreds of pounds to his principals. In tho long run Innight's wool salo will mean moro than money to the millions in crowded Europe who depend on the overseas countries of the Empire for food and shelter. In tho midlands of England women will wear new and better shawls, new worsteds and tweeds will be sen in Berlin, tho French peasant will wear moro serge, and there will be more blankets n Moscow. Those wools from Now Zealand farms find their wav into more corners of the earth than the most, energetic globetrotter ever hears about. AUCTIONS IN SYDNKY. FINE WOOLS KEENLY SOUGHT j I.ATE RATES MAINTAINED. A tin! ni I i;»n ;ukl N./«. A.vjmm iatinii (Received November 2G, 11.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, Nov JO. At the Sydney wool sales to-day 12,007 bales were sold. All fino wools wero in keen demand at full late, rates. Skirtings were very firm. I here was strong demand io|- lambs wools and cro.ssbreds, (ilea>y Merino (leeco sohl to 30.^1. DEMAND IN BIIiTAIN. REPORT FROM LONDON. |BY IM.KOR.WH.—- OWN I nil I! KSI'ONIiKNT. ] W ELLINGTON, Monday Iho following advice is contained in a cablegram, dated November 24, received by the Department of Agriculture from the High Commissioner for Now Zealand m London : "Ihe wool sales continue satisfactory, with a brisk demand. Prices show a hardening tendency, especially for Merino."