LOCAL WOOL SALE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7018, 5 January 1910, Page 3

LOCAL WOOL SALE

Tuesday, February 15th, 2 p.m. ' WOOL MARKETING LOCAL VERSUS HOME SELLING. REPLIES TO THE LONDON CRITICS. OPINIONS OF BUYERS AND BROKERS. In those columns yesterday there appeared a letter from Messrs Viliams and Overbury, the well-known London woolhrokers, in reply to an article written for this paper on the question of Home versus local woolselling. The article was in reply to a statement which appeared in a report of tho firm in question, in which it was declared that the return per bale was better for the London than tor the colonial auctions, thereby implying that the grower received more for his wool by selling it in London than in Now Zealand. The most conclusive answer to any argument in favour of soiling in London is tho rapidly-in-creasing patronage of looal sales. Tho fanner is one of the last men to let sentiment sway him where his pocket is affected. In order . that growers may have an opportunity of studying the question from every point of view the opinions of the buyers operating on New Zealand markets, and of some looal brokers have been obtained. It has to bo remembered in considering the matter that the principle of local selling is fast displacing the auctioning of wool in London, and that, naturally, the London broker is making tho very best of his case in order to retain as much of the trade as possible. Of course, it will bo argued on the other side that • both the local buyer and the local broker are interested in making the case of colonial selling • as strong as possible. Hqw-i over, from a survey of the following, opinions enough will he seen to shorn that the grower who sells locally is at no disadvantage with the seller on Home markets, and that where he continues support of the local sales, (from season to season he will realise a higher average price in addition to enjoying the undoubted advantage of immediately changing his wool into gold. LOCAL MARKETS AS STRONG AS 1 LONDON. No man is better qualified to speaA of the present position of marketing) wool than Mr Walter Hill, honorary secretary of the Wool Buyers’ Assdcia-. tion. Mr Hill crystallised the position from the buyers’ view-point into the; following sentence: “We cone here, in order to be able to buy wool on the! day on which we are selling it.” They did not visit colonial markets, he continued, expecting to buy cheaper or' expecting to pay more money for the wool. There was, in fact, just as l much competition on the New Zealand) market as on any other, and the colonial market was quite equal, from the I seller’s standpoint, to London or any' other market for the class of wool. Consequently, whatever the price, it was the highest on the day. ’1 WHO GETS THE EXTRA MONEY?. “ If wo buy hero on the spot,” said( Mr Hill, “wo can contract for monthal ahead and regulate our shipments accordingly, thus saving all store l charges which are incurred by the. seller in London. : This is very much' better business and decidedly more economical than waiting till the. last moment and having to buy in London. There is a distinct saving be-

tween buying in New Zealand and buying in England of gd pel* pound. The wool costs, if sold through London, Id per pound and the expense to Bradford of $d a pound. Ihe expense from New Zealand to Bradford direct, however, is a bare penny. Who gets the benefit of tho apart altogether from the fact of New Zealand Doing a better market A MISLEADING COMPARISON.

Speaking of the comparison made between the average price of bales sold in London and in Australasia, Mr Hill said that though the only practical way was to quote per bale, it was misleading if it was not stated what the hales included. There was a higher percentage of pieces and bellies in New Zealand sales than in those of London, and there was here a larger proportion of inferior wools sold. These facts naturally brought down the New Zealand average. Figures, remarked Mr Hill, could be made to say anything. It was decidedly untrue, he declared, that there was a better price returned the grower in Loudon. If a clip were divided up for a period of five years, half being sent to London and half sold in New Zealand, the local market, declares Mr Hill, would show the best results; of that ho is certain. BUYER CAN PAY MORE HERE. Another buyer of considerable experience, Mr H. T. Milnes, puts the position this way. Generally speaking in the past the best wools have gone to London. Then until recently there had been a lot of wool bought by speculators for resale in London. At the present time all this wool is being purchased by tho direct agents of Home manufacturing concerns. Tho buyer who visits New Zealand markets does not expect to buy wool at a fraction less than, he can buy it for in London. The benefit he does get is that he buys wool here to-day and boa, roughly, three months in which to sell that wool before it arrives at Home. Tho topmaker or spinner, or whoever happens to be the purchaser, has thus a good period in which to make his sales for forward delivery, and this without any expense in the way of (storage or interest. Under the oir.cumstaaces, seeing that he escapes lextra London charges, he can naturalfly pay a shade more than London Iparity.

The buyer, said Mr Milnes, does .come out to gain something, hut not .at the expense' of the grower. The manufacturer would buy certain 'things on the colonial market which, ■perhaps, at the time he would not have orders for, hut knowing that it would he weeks or months before tho ■wool would get Home he could do so in safe anticipation of getting' orders in the meantime.' The manufacturer operating on the colonial market ■could thus contract with greater freedom than the man who had to wait 'for the London sale. A FRENCH OPINION.

Mr L. Nopenaire, the well-known French operator, is quite emxjhatio as 'to the unfairness of comparing the market returns for bales sold in New Zealand and Home markets. There is a much larger proportion of small and back-country clips sold in the Dominion, which largely reduces the average ;prioe per bale. The buyer is prepared, declares Mr Nopenaire, to. pay a slightly better price in New Zealand it costs less to buy and ship (direct to tho manufacturing' centre 'than buying in London. The buyer ,haa also the first selection of the wools ’in operating locally and can therefore l con tract for tops against rivals who patronise the Home markets. None of the French firms operating in New Zealand, declares Mr Nopenjairo, buy for speculative purposes. The wool is all purchased for mills and ■top-making purposes, and hence it is imperative to secure the. staple at 'first hand and as early as possible. The competition is just as keen in New Zealand as it is in London, and for the reasons stated the prices are ‘often higher than in London. In some ißeasons it is distinctly higher in the colonies than in London. Then, again, whore the market is weak and the position strengthens, it will happen that the later sales in London will give a better return than the early sales in New Zealand. The position, however, outs both ways, and taking the average Mr Nopenaire certainly thought the Now _ Zealand grower did better by marketing his wool locally, in addition to which he received his money at once. AN EXPLODED FALLACY. It was contended, said Mr Nopennire, that there was more competition in. London, because there were more buyers. There might, be. said, be more buyers present—sometimes there are as many as 300—but not more than fifty operate, about the same number as at a Wellington sale. It is a handy place for novices to be trained, and an operator would have two or three apprentices with him. Last season the operator for Mr Nopenairo’s firm had three young buyers with him, merely taking notes and gaining experience. BETTER SELECTION IN NEW ZEALAND. A new operator on the local market declared that manufacturers were being forced to patronise' the local sales because of the better selection of wools. There was a greater percentage of good average Bradford wool to be obtained here. Another buyer declared that at the present time wools could not be bought in New' Zealand to make tops to sell at tho ruling price in Bradford. If, he said, a fanner was prepared to take the highest price ruling at the moment he could get it in New Zealand, hut if ho wanted to speculate on the market for the next throe or four months ha had the opportunity in patronising the London sales. Wools certainly looked better . in the local sale-rooms and buyers wore more apt to be impressed by the condition of the wool as it came hot off the shears rather than after-it had been dumped and had lost some of its bloom. BROKERS’' VIEWS, i A number of the leading .brokers

were invited to express their views on the matter. Their arguments, briefly put, were that it was impossible to make any true comparison between the prices returned in London and in blew Zealand—-it was just as fair to compare the average price per hale at Christchurch and Wellington; that it was not to the disadvantage of New ' Zealand markets that the wool. was sold within a few months and this at ; the beginning of the season when everyone was looking out for wool, and the actual number of buyers oper- | ating locally does not represent the buying strength, as some of the operators are representing up to a dozen Home. Continental and American manufacturers. One broker declared that his experience had been almost invariably that growers who had pulled out of the looal market and shipped to London had fallen in, except in one or two exceptional oases. ■