CHRISTCHURCH WOOL SALE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 8

CHRISTCHURCH WOOL SALE

APPRECIATION IN VALUES MORE THAN 100 PER CENT, EXPECTED, . (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 13. Although most firms of wool broken! have not yet worked out the average prices received for the catalogues at yesterday’s wool sale the figures taken out by one firm show an appreciation in values of more than 100 per cent. The first sale last year yielded this firm an average of £8 8s 3d a bale, while the sale yesterday averaged £18" 7s sd. The price per pound this year was 13.18<i and last year 5.97 d. If this average is maintained throughout the other catalogues it will mean that-the return to the farmer from the first sale will be little less than £400,000 compared with a return of £199,351 last year. Brokers ; generally are very well satisfied with the sale, some of them more so than they expected to.be. The North Island sales, on which all brokers based their estimates, were hot a particularly good comparison and most of them were inclined to be conservative. The broker whose averages have been quoted said to-day that the return was just about what he expected. ,He had attended some of the North Island sales and saw the way prices’ were going. Nevertheless he expressed complete satisfaction with the outcome, which,, he said, would put new heart into the industry. The manager of one company expressed gratification that the lower wools, had sold so well. The farmer would this year be able to show a profit. He mentioned that not all the rise in the value of crossbreds was due to the rising market, but explained that many farmers had used fine-wooled rams and thus secured a far better return. One instance of this was the experience of a Peninsula farmer whose wool last year made 4}d and this year made 12Jd.

The staffs in all the offices were today busy with their averages, and in almost every case the price of fi7 a bale was anticipated. The one complete! set of figures seem to indicate that this will be exceeded because the catalogue pn which those averages were based was representatives of the whole sale. One broker said he expected many of . the halfbred clips which his firm had sold to make £2O a bale on the averag?, a price almost double the return from the first sale last year.

Inquiry for the wools passed at the sale has been very good. One broker said he was got out of bed a little before midnight by a buyer anxious to obtain some of the woo] passed at the sale. The inquiry after the sale was even keener than at the sale itself. This broker said that almost all his passings were cleared, and at prices which he thought would average up to a penny a., pound more all round. ■; Those most closely in touch with the market share the optimism they felt in 1924—they c&n see no reason why prices should not hold at their ptesent levels throughout the season. “We cannot look for a startling improvement,” said a broker, “ but we can fairly safely look forward to a continuance of the present values.”