BAWRA PILLS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12181, 4 July 1925, Page 19

BAWRA PILLS

FOR SICK MARKETS CLIP VALUES. In the absence of auctions there is nothing to indicate any change in the wool market. Private cables, however, show that the propaganda for the extension of Bawra and suggested artificial props for wool values have had a retarding effect upon the recovery of confidence, and that until some settlement is definitely arrived at trade will proceed on cautious lines. Exaggerated ideas of possible control and price fixing have seriously alarmed the trade, and there will.be a disposition to hold off the market until the future is more assured. Whether sales will resume in the first week in July, and what the offerings will be, is to be discussed by the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia . in, Melbourne on June 16th. It is yetr too early., to speculate as to the possible volume pi business. BAWRA PROPAGANDA' i Meanwhile, regardless of its immediate >depressibg effect on the market, ill® .idea of handing over control to some scheme of a glorified Bawra is being pressed for .all it is worth in Victoria, where systematic propaganda work has been going on. The absence of details of Sir John Higgins’s scheme to control the Australian wool markets makes it difficult fan opponents to criticise or for advocates tq enthuse oyer the. proposal. . TJie chairman of Bawra’s avowed, supporters in Victoria are apparently’ prepared to swallow any gilded, pill so long as it is labelled “stabilisation,” but in other States the attitude is much more critical. Many of the most representative and experienced growers have declared emphatically against any. meddling with the position by inexperienced theorists, believing that wool selling is a specialised vocation, and that tTie present trade system is perfectly sound and satisfactory. Bawra lagging on the stage after its turn is over and seeking excuse after excuse to delay ■ a final liquidation becomes a disturbing factor The trade wants to know what the.policy is to be in regard to the realisation of held-over wools and the bumper clip coming along, and the longer the matter is lield up by visionary l schemes the more will the return of general pro»perity bo delayed. There is nothing in the position of present prices to justify any “fixing” scheme. The plotters ignore the fact, that the real trouble now is a lack of demand, the aftermath of a boom period, and that the less trade machinery is “monkeyed” with the better it will function in restoring confidence'. DANGERS AHEAD Growers with vision object to Government control in anv shape or form, and reoognise its dangers. It may lead ultimately to the nationalisation of the sheep and wool industry and other Socialistic experiments which no sensible grower would wish to encourage. As to “minimum reserves, the previous experience of these was the most farcical period in the trade’s history. They do not mean fixed, but fictitious, prices. If lower than the market they become farcical, if higher they cTipple business. The value of wool must he determined by the ultimate selling price of manufactures, and to attempt to dictate at the seat, of production is a system of working backwards, which is not practicable. There has been a lot of unjustifiable and unwarranted talk of bear movements to bring down wool values, and the stupidity of this claim is apparent bv the fact that it is the buyers who have lost money. If, however, a de- ’ fiiiite policy is created in Australia tq dictate prices to the world, it will lib inviting ' wool’ users to retaliate and create 'machinery, as they easily could, to pool tlioir purchases and to force the position by concentrating in other centre®-and in the development of substitutes.