THE LONDON WOOL SALES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1213, 31 May 1895, Page 6

THE LONDON WOOL SALES.

London, April 5. The sales finished up in brisk style last Saturday, with a full attendance and keen competition. Everybody breathed freely at the finish to find the course run without any trace of weakness, thanks to the timely intervention of the Yorkshire buyers, who came to the rescue during the last week with characteristic energy ; although meanwhile the markets on the Continent were quieter and price 3 drooping, and the foreign representatives here were correspondingly "in the dumps." Happily, no quotations of. lower rates in London can be given to disturb values in the manufacturing centres, as has so often been the case in previous sales, and we are now fairly launched 'into one of the intervening sections of the circle (where values are so often shipwrecked) with everything in our favour. The best news of the week comes i Bradford, where, at last, the turn in the tide is being felt, and even acknowledged, which is the more remarkable, for a Yorkshireman's trail, of never being satisfied is seen at its best on Bradford Exchange. A. good all round inquiry is, however, being experienced, and where a dealer, with some old stock or cheap importations, is willing to sell at a slight advance on old rates ready business ensues. The chief benefits come to merinos, which are slowly but gradually improving in values in the home markets. There has been a severe struggle, and for some weeks no advance could be gained. This was probably owing to the suspicion that the movement was purely a speculative one, originating with large Continental houses, who were heavily stocked with importations from your colonial markets and to whom such an improvement was almost a vital necessity. Whether there were any just grounds for these suspicions it is, of course, impossible to say. It is a more satisfactory thing to know that such an improvement, long desired and much needed, has come, and that the benefit of it is beingexperienced in every branch of the wool and woollen industrv.

The distinctive features of the rise have varied, for while on the Continental markets the advance was sharp and certainly sudden, it has been stubbornly slow in Yorkshire, and has scarcely yet reached a level which will fully correspond to London values. Another and more pregnant feature is the fact that vhile values this week seem to be steadily rising in the home markets a reverse movement seems to have set in at the Continental centres, and quotations are slowly declining from the level reached during the middle of the sales. It is to be hoped that the "mean" between the two different levels of values which have undoubtedly existed in the two great rival centres may prove to be the fixed basis for the present interval, and if so it will correspond very closely to the closing rates of the London sales.

It must also be recorded that better feeling is being experienced in crossbred sorts. There was a gradually hardening tendency during the last 10 days of the sales, and this has developed during the week into a decided if but slight advance of -£d to |d per lb. on lower grade tops. It hus been scarcely realisable, except to those whose speciality is in crossbred sorts, how great a " slump " has taken place during the past six months in these bright wools, especially in the faulty sorts, such as were sold so freely in the Melbourne and Sydney markets. The fall in most of these sorts during six months has reached 20 percent., and any turn in the way of recovery, however slight, is encouraging.

A good deal of,talk is being indulged in just now as to the advantages or otherwise which have been gained by buying in the colonial markets during the past season. An impression has got abroad in the sales that people who bought in the colonies have made rrioney. If so, it certainly was their turn, for the last few years have been disastrous to the speculative buyer. We have heard of several small lots bought in your markets and sold here at good margins. For instance, a small lot of scoureds said to have 9d sold at 13d in London, and this has been in everybody's mouth. Some little lots of crossbred greasies, bought at the lowest point just before Christmas in Melbourne, also showed a liberal margin, but it need scarcely be pointed out that

these are exceptional, and not a fair criterion.—London correspondent of the Australasictn,