WOOL CLIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 79

WOOL CLIP.

ALL AUSTRALIA -WAITS.

SALES BEGIN. ‘ (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 18. Australia is watching the wool sales this year more anxiously perhaps than ever before in its history. They are all important to the future finances of the Commonwealth. A slump in wool at this stage would mean greater disaster than ever. It was with relief, therefore, that the news was received that the prices at the first big Sydney sales this week equalled the closing rates of last season. Competition, too, was extremely keen, auguring well for the future.

On the amount of new credit that will be created through the sales depends mainly the facility with which the Commonwealth will be able to preserve its financial status overseas. Sydney is the chief sale centre in Australia, and that was why such keen interest was displayed everywhere in the auctions which opened here on Monday. When a foreign buyer is about to operate in Australia his firm establishes, in London usually, credits on Australian account with its bank. The London bank advises its Australian office of the credit, and funds are made available in Australia accordingly. In the present acute dearth of Australian funds the payments that are made inward in London must prove distinctly helpful. As a result of the pinch the banks are offering premiums of up to 64 per cent, for such payments in London. That premium should be reflected in the price which is obtained by the wool seller in Australia, the margin being allowed for by the buyer when he is bidding at open auction. Wool sold has to be removed within three working days of its sale. It is estimated that the quantity of wool that will be available for sale this season will be approximately 2,480,000 bales, made up as follows:—New South Wales, 1,050,000 bales; Queensland, 430,000 bales; Victoria, 610,000 bales; South Australia, 165,000 bales; Western Australia, 180,000 bales; Tasmania, 45,000 bales.

During last season 2,553,321 bales were sold at auction in the Commonwealth. The net weight was 775,279,7311 b, and the gross value was £33,924,062. In the previous season sales represented 2,654,695 bales, and the gross value was £57,122,056. Of last season’s sales , Sydney accounted for 809,172 bales, valued at £15,080,918, compared with 1,155,362 bales, valued at £25,264,413 in the previous season. If last season’s average price is obtained for this year’s clip the yield will approximate £32,950,000. Portion of each clip is bought by local textile manufacturers, but if the whole of the sum realised were paid into the Australian account in London the exchange involved on the basis of 64 per cent, would be more than £2,000,000.