WOOL IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20924, 14 July 1931, Page 5

WOOL IN AUSTRALIA.

DECISION BY CONFERENCE.

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING.

LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

[from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, July 2,

It is generally recognised that the Empire Wool Conference which concluded at Melbourne last week did nothing very revolutionary. There are some experts, however, who hold that the conference was justified for one thing it did —a decision not to attempt to combat the law of supply and demand in the marketing of wool. As a result of the meeting a continuance of sound marketing principles seems to be assured.

Reviewing the situation one expert says;—" Had any effort been made to control prices artificially tho natural economic law would have eventually prevailed. It has shown its inevitable action in tho case of many commodities with which price-fixing has beon attempted. Tho 'Melbourne decision, made by the authorised representatives of three countries, which, combined grow 40 per cent, of the world's wool, should decisively prevent those with venturesome but unsound ideas from experimenting with schemes the outcome of which would be chaos.

" Apart from all other aspects, the decision arrived at makes tho deliberation of the conference valuable to the pastoral industry. Unless an effective method of controlling'tho world's annual production and its consumption of wool year by year can be devised, any effort to control its selling price must prove as futile as Australia's attempt to keep up the same expenditure when the .values of her primary products are low as when they were on boom levels. At the conference an estimate was made of the quantity of wool likely to be produced in the Commonwealth during the coming season and the total number of bales that will probably be available for sale. The following figures show how the estimate compares with the total for previous seasons, the figures first mentioned showing the total bales in the season's clip, while those in parentheses show the total receipts at stores for 5a1e1927-28, 2,673,000 (2,446,780); 1928-29, 2,862,877 (2,690,486); 1929-30, 2,867,000" (2,583,000); 1930-31, 2,728,000 (2,439,166); 1931-32, 2,942,500 (2,675,000). The receipts for 1930-31 are to the end of May and the figures for 1931-32 are estimated. The Sydney allocations provide for the offering of 517,000 bales before Christmas, compared with 464,000 bales during the same period this season. Sales are to start on August 31 —two weeks earlier than in e 1930. According to information received by the Graziers' Association the Chinese National Government has made available £2,000,000 for the purpose of developing the woollen manufacturing industry in that country. The association is giving every assistance, and may send representatives to China.