OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3511, 28 June 1921, Page 12

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

LONDON SALES- STILL THE BAROMETER OF VALUES. Ft; oyi Oub Special Cott res ton dent. BRADFORD, April 28. The members of the textile trade are now making ready for the next series oi London sales, which begin next Tuesday, B A.W.R.A. having announced that they will put up 40,000 bales; 37,000 bales of privately-owned wool will also be catalogued This looks quite as much as tne trade can comfortably absorb, and it is to be hoped that there will not be the same fiasco with B.A.W.R.A. (wools as took place last series. Everything will depend upon what reserves are put upon the offerings, and it is to be hoped that B.A.W.R.A. will have learnt that it is useless to impose values which are palpably above the market and which no one will pay. From tho very first B.A. V\ .R.A. has been badly managed, and here is no wonder at the latest wail of Sir John Higgins, who forecasts serious disaster to the wool-growing- interests of Australia. Nobody in ihe trade believes tha-t such a thing will happen. It was very unwise on. the part of fcfir John Higgins to tell the growers that if they united they could dictate the price of merino wool to the whole world. t o make such a statement is to ignore that there is a consuming as well as a. producing market for wool. OUTLOOK FOR THE SALE. The vacation has been characterised by a movement, the like of which we have not seen for many months, and therefore everyone feels that tlie forthcoming sales should be productive of real good. For the first time for many months a slight advance has taken place in merino tops, and the majority of merino topmakers will go to l iema.ii street with nil their stocks of wool pract.ic-a.lly cleared, and therefore there should be considerable buying. It will be one of the biggest mistakes B.A.W.R.A. can make if the reserves are any more than 10 per cent, above prices ruling last series, and thus encourage buyers to operate freely. If Sir Arthur Goldfinch thinks he is going to flog the trade into obeying the dictates of 8.A.V0 V he will eventually find out that In .->,|e a mistake, there having- aR-ead. . tough of that line of action. TTio't, . an be relied to buy when they have a need of the wool, and can get it at the right price, and no other influence will inspire users to operate except real existing- needs. We anticipate that the forthcoming sales will be the best this year, and do not see any reason why the majority of home and Continental buyers should not purchase tho raw material quite freely. We hardly think anybody will be prepared to pay much higher prices than those ruling last senes; in fact, there is no need for it; but it is now to-day a question of lofting wool go when there is reasonable competition, and this wc fully anticipate. It is just possible that the home trade may be prepared to pay 5 per cent, more for good combing merinos than last series, hut a greater advance than that seems to be altogether out of the question. THE SOLUTION. The writer, has contended all along that the only possible way of B.AAA’.R.A. getting rid of their big reserves is to cease attempting to dictate prices to the woolusing world. It is all right conceiving a scheme in some Government office, but if Sir Arthur Goldfinch had moved more among actual consumers and gone through the West. Riding a few times, there would have been brought home to him the terrible state of the textile industry. To tell the wool world that prices are going to be maintained by the simple action of withholding* wool from the market, when the raw material is growing faster than B.A.W.R. A. can deal with it. shows d t once the policy of the association is quite incompatible with trade conditions. Better by half put upon the market no more than the trade wants. When woo! is reserved at 25 per cent, above a market value it is impossible to compel buyers to purchase what they do not want. The only sensible method of dealing-with the wool situation to-day is for B.A.W.R.A. to stand on one side until better days dawn. That woo! lias been paid for bv British taxpayers' money, and every opportunity of marketing the current clip at market values should bo given to all growers. \\Tiat we want is expansion of consumption, and then prices will soon regulate themselves. Nothing else will bring about a better state of affairs in the wool world, and if wool has to come cheaper then let it do so with all possible speed, for at a time like the present it is

the cheapness of wool which will stimulate demand. Tlie sooner the demand increases the sooner will wool values right them.