WOOL PROSPECTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23203, 24 November 1938, Page 12

WOOL PROSPECTS

The sixth and final series of London wool sales, just opened, is regarded as giving some indication of the prospects for the New Zealand selling season, which commences at Auckland on Saturday. The London prices"cannot be taken as an entirelyreliable beacon, as was proved last year. However, for what they are worth as a guide, the prices realised at the opening of the sales on Tuesday were favourable, particularly for those wools which mean most to New Zealand. The woolgrower is entitled to hope that this trend will be maintained, or even increased, when clips are offered here—though he would not be wise to build too many expectations on that possibility. Apart from the pastoralists most immediately affected, the whole country should also be moved to hope that the season will be a good one. There should be no need to tell anyone that the country's financial resources overseas have fallen; the facts have been proclaimed often enough. The only way they can be built up again is by the sale of commodities, and wool ranks high among those which are exchanged for the imports New Zealand must have if trade is to follow its normal course and the everyday needs of the people are to be met. Dairy production is down for the season so far as it has gone, and prices could have been very much better. A good wool season would be of the utmost value to New Zealand's economic life. In spite of what is sometimes said to the contrary, the return from exports is more vitally-important to New Zealand than ever. For everybody's sake it is to be hoped that wool will contribute a generous return.