ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9618, 26 March 1917, Page 2

ENGLISH WOOL LETTER

IP THE GOVERN 7 ME XT MAKING BIG PROFITS?

(From Our Special Correspondent.) BRADFORD. January 25, 1917. The biggest factor in the market today is still the Government, which is likely to remain in that position for a year or two. It has published _a list of minimum prices at which it will sell tops for the next three months, and which it will not increase for the next six months. Still, these prices are practically up use and mean very little, because tho Government has no tops to offer. There is every reason for saying that the War Office has more spinning machinery running than it has combing machinery to keep it all sup plied, and rather than a seller of tops, it is a buyer. It is quite on the cards, now that the census forms have all been returned and results are being collected in London, that many firms will be asked to surrender their stocks of tops at a good deal below to-day’s prices. In fact, this is already being done, but topmakers who thus accommodate tho Government have the right to have the same weight of tops returned to them at the same price when the Government wool is combed. Although the Government has printed a list of top prices at which it says it will sell, it will not offer anything like such prices to buy. It' is quite possible that before long more combing machinery will he commandeered. The long wool and carded crossbred combers in Bradford are not now- allowed to do any ;,{;ivatc work without Government permission. Confidence here seem h to be returning a little, and there is more doing in both merinos and crossbreds. Still even yet business Is restricted because stocks are so light. Fine crossbreds are very, firm, anj merinos are certainly stiffer than they were a fortnight ago. The best makers are fo-day wanting 5s fid for a warn fit’s, and some who have none arc asking Id more. A few firms will not quote at all. The Government order that all farmers must sell their old wool before tho end of this month has brought' some nice weights of 1915 clip on to the market. Yorkshire hogs and wethers have changed hands at 22d, greasy Kents at 23d. washed Kents 25 Jd, Shropshire fleeces 26Jd, low- Hordwicks , 13d. these last being by. no means creditable wool. Licenses for export trade ore none too plentiful, neither for France nor for neutrals. Nothing further has been heard about the 50,000 bales - for America, and also the five million weight of carpet wools. Except for a few old contracts made in this country, we hardly think the Australian wool will . be bought here, but will be sent direct from Australia. They will probably be mostly burry merinos and fine crossbreds. What surprises the English trade most of all is the statement that some Downs and lustres will be allowed to go. The 1915 clip of Down wool is about consumed, and though nobody knows what tho War Office has in. stock, it is whispered on good authority, that stocks are very small. The Government has refused to sell Irish wool for export to Canada, So why America should get Downs and lustres is a little puzzling. WHAT ABE NEW ZEALAND CROSSBREDS WORTH? Details are now available from Hew Zealand as to what will happen to new season’s wool. Tho stoppage of , the sales there came very suddenly, neither buyers nor growers expecting it, and after the discussion which all the world knows about, it was decided to take o ver the 1916-17 clip on a basis of 55 _ per cent, above pre-war prices. It is pointed out that there will be very little New Zealand merino wool to export as the tweed and hosiery factories in tho Dominion are likely to consume all of it. ■ Still, -though they have taken the best of tho few clips of merinos that New Zealand produced during past years, one or two firms have managed to case what they did not want, and send it to London for sale. Most buyers know the Ri and C in Diamond/L brand of cased merino and fine crossbred matchings. Last series in London only on© greasy New Zealand clip of the new season was sold, and we have good reason for stating that if the official responsible for taking out these wools from the catalogues for Government use had known about it this clip also would nor have been allowed to pass the hammer. 11 was overlooked, but it furnishes a good example of what values wool is making. Now that all restrictions have been taken oft reports of tho sales we can give * few more details. The clip was Ngako. nui. and the greasy first fine crossbred combing, which was 50’s quality, and would yield about 72 per cent., sold at 2s Id; second fin© crossbred combing H, about the same quality and slightly leas yield, 2s; second fine crossbred combing W, 3s; third fine crossbred combing H. <3*s, with a‘ yield of 71 per cent., Is lid; third fine crossbred combing, W, Id’s, with a yield of 75 or 76 per cent.. Is lid; cross-bred combing, 44’s, yielding 76 per cent., partly cotty, made tho excellent figure of Is lOd. The whole clip was exceedingly light and well grown, and if the rest ot this year’s New Zealand clip is anything like it the Government have scoured some excellent wool. The New Zealand newspapers received here report that the following prices are what the Government is paying for wool to the grower, Of course, they are about Id or 2d less than last year’s rates, but the grower has no brokerage, insurance or interest to pay, and no responsibility for shinping. The Government controls all the shipping, is Paying the expense and commissions of buyers and brokers who are acting as valuers, and in other ways handling the wool. The New Zealand brokers are faring far better than the London houses, for what they used to receive from the former they arc now getting from the Government, and so they have very little to grumble about compared with tho banks and importing houses on this side. Once the Government has valued wool here the importer has no need to go to the sale room, because even if it fetches Is per lb above tho Government price he does not receive anv more money. Both banks and importers are losing all interest in the market. Against the following prices we have put what similar wool has been soiling for on the most recent dates of offering. Last series there was no really superior halfbred. but we give December rates. Dp to Id per lb must bo allowed for Government expenses, from which it will be seen what margins there are for the War Office:—

price. price, d d d d Super hnlfbred 18J—21J 28 —3l Medium to good ... loi—lßJ 21 —27 J Inferior lialfbred ... 14 —loj 21 —23 i Super crossbred 16i—ISi 23 —26 Medium to good

crossbred 14 —l7 19 —22£ Inferior crossbred... 13 —l4 15^*—18 Lincoln and Leices-

ter 13J —16J 17 —2l Lambs, good 17 —2O 21i—24$ Lambs, medium ... 14 —l6i 15 —2O It will be noticed that at the above prices the Government is acting very reasonably with the growers, giving specially good prices for the last five descriptions. It must not be forgotten that the Government has its own losses to stand, and cannot insure them with anybody else, and if shipping becomes any dearer, and crossbred prices fall at all, the Army Contracts Department may be faced with a loss on much of the wool. Of course, they can always commandeer shipping space at less money than private firms would have to pay. WHITEWASHED WOOL. Apparently Great Britain is not the only country which has a wool trade annoyed, by official regulations. The

new rules under winch wool is to be shipped to America arc really wonderful examples of what can be done by people who set out ,to control the trade without knowing anything about it. They state that fleece wool can only bo imported if accompanied by a sworn declaration from a competent authority that it has been cut from sheep that are perfectly healthy, and the United States Consul's support to this declaration must be secured. If an English dealer sells Queensland wool to a Boston house the new regulation would seem to say that lie must cable to the grower iu Queensland who must choose a competent authority, who must swear that the sheep were not troubled with anthrax, foot and mouth disease, or rinder-pest, the American Consul at the port of shipment must support the statement, besides which probably the American Con. sul at the English port of shipment will also have to forward a similar statement before the Customs officials in Boston will allow the wool to enter the country. Whether any of these people will remember which sheep the wool was clipped from, and whether they were in good health, does not worry the American legislator’s. It will he as complicated a matter as the house that Jack built and infinitely more annoying before the end is readied. Skin wool has to bo treated even more severely, and unless the or receiver undertakes to sterilise it in a temperature of 200 degrees F. the American Government will see to it that when the wool is landed the bales are whitewashed, put in scaled cars, and run to a Government plant where it will be heated at boiling point (212 degrees F.) for fifteen minutes. No doubt this will kill the bugs, fleas, moths and beetles, but what tire wool will bo like when it comes out is something that Washington evidently has not thought about. At a time like the present, when America Is so hungry for wool and there is a chance of £er receiving small supplies from this country and Australia, the American Government, choose to make business far more difficult by such silly regulations. It is an actual case of using a sledge hammer to kill a fly, and what with the Textile Alliance and the War Trade Department licenses to be applied for, the wool trade between England and the United Slates has enough officialdom to put up with without any further addition?