THE LONDON WOOL SALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1875, 28 October 1887, Page 15

THE LONDON WOOL SALES.

Messrs Jacomb, Son, and Co., in their circular dated September 6, report a> follows on the September wool sales :— "The experience of three days' _ catalogue s gives a more reliable view of the position of the colonial wool market. The competition of the Home trade strongly predominates ; several of our large Continental customers have not yet entered an appearance; one or two United States buyers are on the spot, but have not yet operated, nor has there been much offering to tempt them. The market has been very irregular, the selection offered being in great part very poor, mixed, and miscellaneous; the greater expedition of the present day renders the September auctions in great measure the equivalent of the November series of old, as a clearing up of tail ends of clips and remnants of the season. Wools of the new clip from Queensland are already appearing in the catalogues. " Prices may be now quoted, as compared with the average of our July auction currency : — For the better combing merino grease and washed, on a par; all short and faulty, reduction; scoured merino, especially short, poor and faulty parcels, £-d to Id reduction ; all merino lambs' neglected at Id reduction; crossbred descriptions, generally, in strong demand on a par with the very best ; Cape and Natal grease, on a par with the lowest; do do scoured, especially faulty sorts, Id to Id reduction ; do do washed fleece, heavy, at to Id reduction. Values of merino wools are now low; stocks in the ultimate markets throughout Europe are generally quite light ; the production of wool in the River Plate will be materially curtailed for a while in consequence of drought and other drawbacks ; all this considered should be reassuring as to the future of colonial wool."

Messrs Dalgety and Co., in their circular of the same date, give the following interesting particulars of the Antwerp wool sales : — " The public sales at Antwerp, which lasted from the 17th August to Ist inst. comprised — Bales. Bales, Buenos Ayres and Monte Video ... 21,003,0fwhich9873) f ,b, b Australian ... 11,608 „ „ 84S1 \ f WJE 8 Sundries ... 1,839 „ „ 314) at auction. Total ' ... 34,470 offered, 18,673 sold. Attendance was good, but biddings lacked spirit, and a general decline of fully Jd to id per pound took place. After the result of our opening sale of the 6th inst. was known some little inquiry appears to have sprung up, and a few hundred bales have changed hands privately at fully 5 centimes advance on the sale bids. It seems pretty generally admitted that consumers are but lightly stocked with wool, and must therefore buy more or less freely in order to keep their machinery moving; but on the other hand they claim that the present values of the raw material do not afford even a bare margin for profit, and that if there are light stocks of wool, there are on the other hand fairly heavy ones of manufactured goods."