ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8737, 20 May 1914, Page 4

ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

FUTURE HOPEFUL FOR GROWERS. From Our Special Correspondent. BRADFORD, April 10. The past selling season cannot but ns regarded as one of the boss the lust radii n wool grower lias ever ex-

lerienced. Prices at tho opening wore Wisidorod high, but they were high-' er at tho close, and we feel sure .that, a-tor reckoning up tho year’s “gettings” and ‘'.spendings,” as .Samuel tepys termed them, there will be verj !:iv unsatisfied wool growers in, Australia. English users wish they could jtcuro proportionate advances for their tops, yarns and pieces, but they hate to be content with wishing, for from tho wholesale buyer downwards everyone is strongly against paying any adi.Mices, and everyone is complaining that prices for everything—except ivhat he is selling—are too high. The state of tho homo trade is not of tlio best. There are a few manufacturing linns who aro 'busy, but the great miw jority are finding it a big task to secure enough orders to run their mills normal time. Spinners are quiet jionsidored altogether, and have even jnoro difficulty in keeping frames rural nlug than manufacturers, have with looms. Topmakors are not pressing to buy, as they have very email stocks of both wool and tops in- their ware-' houses, hence combs aro slack. Some combers hare had very little to do for three months, and noils are bringing fancy prices, owing to the small production. SIGNS OF IMPROVING TRADE.

Similar reports como from tho Continental wool centres, except those !in the north of France. During the first three months of this year about SO per cent, more tops have been testi 'id at the Roubaix-Tourooing Condi* ItLoniug House than for the same period in 1913. In fact, wo believe a good FVonch authority said that an ■much tops had been passed through as ■could be made from 380,000 hales of! 'Australian greasy wool. They have; not all been consumed in France.! Large weights of these tops have been' Jeent to Belgium, Italy, and Germany* Austria also has had a share, but here imports are mostly yarns. The ’Balkans are wanting cloth now, and '.trade appears to he improving throughout Europe—i.c., considering it, all round, and giving the Janu.vry-I February .burst in Yorkshire its true' significance. The Bradford Condition--ing House returns also show an in-t crease, and we are eagerly awaiting the American exports for March, which should be out any time. It is nevertheless the opinion of a well-versed wool man that America has saved a great slump this year, and that now we are passed the crisis, wool growers can look forward to good values. Perhaps readers may be bored' by this survey of things at this side; of the world, but if they get from it au idea of iho market here, it will give them something on which to base their opinions in the future. THE POSITION OF WOOL. ' The position of wool is yet unchanged. Wool rules the roost yet, land everything points to it making those who wear wool clothes pay more for them. Although so little, business is passing in the raw material in Bradford, buyers cannot get holders to cut down their prices at aIL Before the March auctions in London, there was no little talk about wool being cheaper, and before the l December sales also last year, but in both cases wool was dearer, and there is every indication of it maintaining! j.ts position, the inherent strength of this lies in the present relationship of two great factors —demand and sapply. Consider the first. The woolusing population of the world is growing by no means slowly, and that “population -js earning higher Wages than ever its has done. It is being better educated, and has more taste for what is good and more desire for a good article. It is calling more than oyer before for the best in clothing, aid to have the best it must have wool fabrics. Then, again, for many years fihe consumption of all-wooi goods in the United States has been, materially restricted, mainly dn© to) the tariff. Last year tho duties were) taken off, and now tho wool-growers! of the world have to feed mother na-, tion with wool, another nation equal! to more than twice the number oh people in the British Isles. About sixteen months ago, the Balkan States went to war. The demand for cloth from there has been practically nilj since that time. During the last two, ;or three months orders have begun to I ;como through, and they are not orders that can he delayed indefinitely. I When a nation has waited a yearj [longer than usual for its new clothing, it begins to need it badly. Thus, everything here points to a “good time”, for growers.

Consider supply. Wool supplied are .decreasing. The Australian drought | of 1912-13 is being felt hero now. It was not felt last year, owing to decreased consumption, caused primarily by the Balkan war and felt in England by a reduced Continental demand. Stocks were nearly used upThis year those stocks have not been replaced. They would hare been if it were possible, but trade has consumed tire wool as fast as it was bought. Over and above this, Am-| erica enters the market, takes a lot of) wool, and now, with less than a mil-j lion ibs of home-grown wool in Bos-' ton, is turning, to Europe to buy; that is to say, turning to four coun(England, France, Germany and Belgium), only one of which has any more wool than she needs. That country is France, who has been such a prominent buyer in Australia, T.a Plata, and the. Cape; hut if her stocks are being used up at the rate of 380,r 000 bales per quarter, she will be in the same case as any other consuming nation before long. flow can tho average grower feel other than comfortable "when he considers these things? JVloro wool is being wanted, and will be wanted, and less is being produced. It does not need a student of economics to say what must happen. MERINOS IN THE BRADFORD MARKET. Merino wool cannot be bought to-day at anything below full recent rates. Nevertheless, it is being bought, and is in as sound a- position as it has ever been. It is a commodity that the Bradford trade, for one, cannot do without. There are some branches of the industry that cannot get on without merino noils, and at present these are fetching very big prices. We men-, tioned above that everyone was complaining about prices being too high. Merino wool is immovable as regards price. Therefore tops are also. At the last .London sales good shafty til's wool

•cost from 13d to lid. He was a lucky (buyer who picked any up at the forImcr price. Tops out of such wool .could not fail to cost 31d at the least, :in spite of which fact topmakors aro ottering 04’s at 30d. Even this price is too much for spinners to pay to get «ny profit out of what they can now make for yarns, and oven ‘their yarn Values aro too high for manufacturers Hie reader will bo tempted to say. AVhy don’t they all put up their prices and make some profits” Tho answer is: Because the wholesale fabric houses (who buy irom the manufacliurers) have to order cloth to como in at a, price which tho public will pay. Cloth is made to a. price in ninety-nine leases out of a hundred. Very rarely (indeed is cloth made regardless of price. The case put briefly is that tho 'public is wanting more wool fabrics, but refuses to pay more for them. 1 fence the demand for wool is greater, the price of it goes up, bufc tho manipulators of it cannot get more for their productions. Naturally, much blending ■has to be done, but in spite of this, the •various sections of tho trade are in (many cases obliged to run their plants (and to do the best they can. (Of course, the C4’s tops offered at 2s Gel lare not sold at a dead loss. Mazamet and other skiu wool will be mixed in, solely for the purpose of cheapening thorn.) It is often cheaper to run machinery at a loss than to close down (altogether, and many firms to-day are working for no mor© profit than suffices to cover machinery depreciation. There aro many reasons for this, too involved to mention here; but as an ounce of practice is worth a pound pf theory, readers of this issue will accept th© fact as proved when we say that a great amount of machinery of all descriptions is being run for no profit at all at the present time in England, on tho Continent, and in America. Mills have installed big Weights of new machinery daring the (last ten years, and growers can rest assured that every effort will be made to keep it running.

CROSSBREDS FIRM ON THE WHOLE.

It may be said of most qualities of crossbreds that they are firm, but in Jjone or two descriptions they have (shown some shakiness during; the past Ifortnight. Carded crossbred tops, of 'fi4’s to 48's quality, have been sold at Slightly below current rates, and for come time medium descriptions generially have been, spoken of as obtainiable with concessions. Other sorts. Jiowover, aro no weaker. The Continent has been making inquiries of Jate for crossbred tops, and for yarns also, but strange to say for the qualities reported weaker. If there is a ichanoe of a market breaking, between April and October, crossbrdds will most probably be found to bo the weak point. At the coming London auctions, to be held at the end of this inonth and in May, something like 125,000 bales (100,750 bales are already to hand) of crossbreds will he available, and for these Bradford users are |in no mood for paying any advance. An attempt was made before the last December sales to beat down merinos by selling tops cheap in Bradford. Some think that the cheap crossbred cardeds mentioned above were sold to accomplish a similar end. One reason why Bradford topmakers are keen for cheap wool is because they were so badly hit last sales. They had sold tops cheap, and found they had to buy wool dear. They are now wan ang wool cheap so as to give them some hope of a profit.

WHAT CAN THE GROWER LOOK FORWARD TO?

The Home trade cannot he said to be in a good position. Things could be much better. An improved demand for fabrics and yarns is wanted, in England at least, but in spit© of the quiet state of trade w© cannot expect wool prices to fall during the next few months. The Australian grower has learnt of late years that Bradford alone does not buy his wool, and to form an idea of how values will go one must look at the world’s consuming trad© and not merely at that of Yorkshire, i Considering the outlook from that position, we' must say that merino values will maintain their present level for some time, and while there may be a slight fall in crossbreds of medium classes, owing to so much coming on to the market at this time of the year, in our opinion any pueb fall at the next London sales will be covered by Id. The grower can rest assured that wool prices are well able to support themselves, and that the statistical position of the raw material in the world was never so strong as it is to-day.