THE LONGWOOL SHEEP SALE FIASCO IN SYDNEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2581, 6 August 1895, Page 4

THE LONGWOOL SHEEP SALE FIASCO IN SYDNEY.

i ' ’ 'to THE■ EDITOB. . Sib, —As an old New Zealander, and one Still feeling a great interest in every thing, that concerns tho welfare of that Colony, 1. followed closely the proceedings of tho late. sheep sales from first to last, and begithe. , favour of a little space in your valuable ’ journal to record my impressions for tho information of those who were, not,here, but who- have a . direct; interest in,the., matter. The selling of New Zealand stud sheep in Sydney was started three, years ago. The first year’s sales wore very satisfactory indeed, good prices were realised; and buyers were thoroughly satisfied with their,purchases. The following- year the num( ber of sheep sent over twas largely s increased, the number of- selling agents was greater, - and the Quality of. .the. sheep was by no means so uniformly good. Notwithstanding. this, all the sheep found buyers at from fairly to highly satisfactory prices. This: year -the sales can only be described as a fiasco,- and - myobjeot in writing is to endeavour, to sot forth the conditions which appear to me to havo rnado them so. They, are as follow t—- ! Tst. There wore far too many sheep sent overlay about 8500 lengweols (ahout.fOOO: Of which came from Tasmania). . , -• i 2nd. The placing of the sheep in tho handsAf.top many agents, _ 1 3rd.* The irioompirehonsihlo; mnanecvvin', Which-time 1 was wasted, whiohmust have resulted- in .-many., country buyers ..being obliged to return home before the sales were anything like concluded. ■-..■■■.■ i 4th> The dry ■ season being experienced. here in'many "districts amounting to a , drought. * ; As to tho number of sheep and the ; number.of; agents, one has of- course no means -of - knowing upon what ladyioe tho New Zealanders acted in sending over suph an enormous number of sheep, but one is tempted_ to fear, seeing the" competition /for .-. business -that must exjsfewhere so T .many ..different, agents ace. 6ohcerned, that; out,of. this.-multitude of counsellors tboreihas not come wisdom,, and itjoeems to mo that in their own interests' the breeders should .discontinue. of dividing their consignments into* the’hands of. so many salesmen. ‘Whore this is done one agent is apt Father to endeavour to make points against, his rival than to study the interests of vendors as a whole, and .‘the buying eompe- - tition fa- considerably weakened by the sheep ; being distributed- in- a - number of hands And places instead- of being ooncon-; tratod at one point. ; What X would' recommend is' that - by some process or other New Zealand Should select an agent hereTTtho' bostXthey can" get—and concentrate ' the whole "of their .consignments in his hands." Some, system-should also be established in your,. Colony by which the advice of tho ugcut at this end a? to the... number. 1 dese'rrptipu.. bf. sheep that the Sydney marketi-can;; absorb at remunerative rates can be givenfull, effect, to. The solution; of tho whole, difficulty is “ Combine,” “ combine,” “combino.” ■ 1.-■ c • . - 1 Now! as to the extraordinary waste; of. time in the'conduct of the sales. /I ob?.. served by tho various catalogues that tho following order, of sales had been arranged; by. the. Auctioneers, and on. making, enquiries! found this had been arranged, the very proper system of, drawing lota ’Order of sales. Merinos Goldsbrough, ■Mort and Go. - (Limited)Hill,:Clark .and Co.;' in conjunction BowewJ-Kother* fordAud'CoVf, F: G.'Weaverr "Longwools—' Goldsbrough,-"Mort - and Co;' (Limited) ; (Pitt, son, Jones.-.and /Devlin (Limited) ;" Hill,' Clark and Co.; in. Conjunction with rowers,; Euthorfqrd" and' Co.; ;W, H- Graves and! Son, in conjunction;'with - New.-: Zealand Loan-aaiAfergahVile Agency Co. (Limited). i The first firm on the list, .Messrs( .Golds-/ brough, andlpo.. .coram^euwtij : ..theif sale of merinos"‘on -TYedhe?day'‘inorhing ( 3rd duly, at id Q'oVqbfc,,selling throughout the entire ,‘,day; T irasumingj on iThutoday morning, and oondudihgiitheir sale about 12.45 p.m. One .would naturally have supposed -that; ’.the'■Auctioneer next oii tho list wouldihave- prooeedod with his and sold throughout that afternoon, brtfehs--a matter'bf fact nothing more Was donethat day, Messrs Hill, Clark and GoVhot commencing their merino sale till Friday morning, the sth inst. This sale was con-, eluded - between ■ ,12-and : 1 o clock ’of thesame day, and to my Amazement notlung more was done in the way of selling till Monday morning, the Bth instT, 'wljQn. Mr F. G. Weaver fhaweantipje one ieard in all directions .visitors from the country who had come to Sydney to buy sheep bitterly com-' plaining of this loss of time; while at every turn one encountered - indignant- New owners wondering what game,; was being played, as the delay wag tq !tj?e sale of thpir sheep, -ygry Serious increase qf pspiensp ip their agisfcx jneirt pbarges-- " ’ - ’ . ! As ! have quit l ! Mr Weaver qorninencou iris salo on Monday morning, the Bth Inst., finishing that: afternoon. .. . . . . A 1 On Tuesday morning,. the 9th inst., six idays after the commencement of the series, the longwool sheepiAalds were -.opened by Messrs Goldsbrough, Mort and; hut ont before 12.30 the same>day;'. T thought to myself, “Surely theje w)!. - he' ho more delay now the New Z,ea-. land sheen, JSfe.' & -lima copmencod npon;lif.h.ut anqt; her-' fhsappprrrtnieht for all I interested -was,in store. The.next,,sale,. Messrs Pitt, Son and Badgery’s, instead of going on !■ that , afternoon was pet'commenced till Wednesday mormlpg. thh lOJhj inst., at 10.30, At its conclusion there followed 'Messrs garrison, done? and Dot-

■ lin, and Messrs Hill, Clark and Co. (in conjunction with Messrs Powers, Rutherford and Co.j, who in turn finished at about 2.45 on Friday afternoon, the 12th inst. There was then still left the largest catalogue of New Zealand sheep, that of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency ■ Company, in conjunction with Messrs Warden Harry Graves and Son. This sale was commenced on Friday afternoon at 3 o’clock, and continued to its conclusion 'paj Saturday afternoon between four ' and five o’clock. The Sydney sheep sales’ ‘of ‘TB93 therefore extended over a period of eleven weary days. How country buyers, with their properties to look after, could possibly'have been expected to remain in Sydney for suah n length .of»time -ia„a problem l am unable to solve —indeed, as a rpatter of fact, I was informed that.’a’,large number of buyers had loft for their homes On making enquiries from some of the auctioneers as to how such'an apparently unbusinesslike proceeding had occurred;;! was referred to nn agreement which;, had been entered into - and signed by all the agents holding sales, which agreement appeared in full in Messrs Goldsbrough, Mort and Co/s catalogue. Instead of this agreement throwing any light on the matter it further puzzled mo, as to me it appeared to provide, distinctly for the business of the sales proceeding, with despatch • instead of being, drawn out as I have described; . I found that one of the clauses of the agreement (No. 6) provided that: — The sales each day shall commence at 10 ajn. and continue with a break of an 1 hour for luncheon until 5 p.m,”. . In view of the proceedings,having been so widely at variance with' this portion of

the agreement, I prosecuted my inquiries further, and was informed that the explanation of the . whole matter was to bo found in clause No. 3 of the agreement, which reads as follows" Each auctioneer shall he, allowed time for the conduct of his sales calculated at the rate of one minute and a quarter per lot, to be offered in accordance 'with his catalogue.” ~ Incredible as it may, seem,the position taken up by the auctioneers who'had drawn, an. early position in the older of sales, was .that clause No. 6 was completely over-ridden by clause No. 3, and that, if an auctioneer actually required; only a fraction of his time , allowance, no -further business could he done—notwithwithstanding clause o—till the fu 11 time allowance hud expired, , , ' That a number of business, men dealing with- important interests could deal with these interests'in such a; manner will no doubt be as puzzling to your readers as it is to mei.; It reminds one . very (forcibly of the old edg'd,' " Every man for himself, and de’il take the hindmost."' ; I have now only to'deal with the fourth .oauee'.td which I have attributed;tho fiasco, viz.,, the dry season being experienced herb. This no doubt was an important, contributing cause but had;arrangon(ents been made on’the lines X have-ventured,to, suggest,;viz.,: that .there should be a concentration, .of, interests'both, in New Zealand, and here, there, would, oply, have been sent.bveriauoh a number of Sheep as there .existed a satisfactory., market for, and drought, sorno drought .there need, have. been no fiasco. , . -'i ■| With my apologies for the length to whifeh'this letter has extended, - the' excuse for which must bo my desire- that' my many friends in ,Now Zealand should. have ah unvarnished statement of the facts'connected: with ‘ these sales as' far as I could relate,them,—l,am, <&>•. : . ’ . ; ■ An Ex-New Zealander in, Sydney.' | Sydney, 22nd July, 189 Q