THE WOOL SEASON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21463, 10 April 1933, Page 8

THE WOOL SEASON

The 1932-33 series of wool sales, which ended with the closing fixture at Napier, brought the pastoralist more promise of better times than realisation of the promise. Prices certainly improved toward the end, and the tone of the sales was much more encouraging. With the best that can be said for the season, returns were not such as to relieve woolgrowers of their anxieties, and the gulf between present conditions and those which prevailed in 1927-28 is still profound. The soundest feature.of the position has been the manner in which catalogues have been cleared. This has been characteristic of the wool market elsewhere throughout the period of depression. Prices have been disastrously low, but except sectionally there has been no such accumulations of stocks as have complicated the position for the producers of rubber and cotton. Until this season it had not been so true of New Zealand as of other wool countries, Australia in particular. For example, a review of the 1931-32 season in New Zealand stated : "Unfortunately this year, as was the case last season, many growers refused to meet the market, and the carry-over of crossbreds is again heavy. The position is further accentuated by the large stocks held in London." With the values which ruled in the two seasons covered by this comment it is easy to understand the feelings of growers who preferred to hold their, wool if they possibly could. As it happened, they gained little or nothing—in many instances even lower offerings was their reward—and the subsequent presence at sales of wool which had suffered by storage certainly did not help to raise values. The virtue of meeting the market

was well vindicated by results. The greater readiness to do so during the present season has undoubtedly cleared the position for what everyone must hope will be better days when the next clip is marketed. The sheepfarmer has suffered the depression to the full, being one of the earliest to feel its onset, and, until recently, the most pronounced victim of its severity. If the better tone at this year's sales, especially toward the end, means his long siege is coming to an end, there is no class of producer more entitled to the relief which the upward movement will bring.