Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 656, 21 March 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1879.

"We have, in the present issue, drawn largely upon our space to make room for home news compiled from our files to hand. The various items of intelligence will be found in their several headings and will be read •with interest. We regret that wool, the great staple of the New Zealand and Australian Colonies, has suffered so serious a decline, with little likelihood of its improvement. At the end of December, the supply of Colonial wool had l-esponded to the long-looked for effects of drought, which brought a decrease of 44,000 bales. At the commencement of the 1878 wool campaign, there were 53,000 bales of old stock held over in first hands, not a very encouraging circumstance when beginning to dsal with the new clip, especially when the greatest efforts had been made by importers, through the preceding season to keep up prices by withdrawing and buying in. The last series of auctions of Colonial wools commenced on the 19 th November, with 173,000 bales. Of this large quantity, quite one-tbird was old stock ! At the end of so \\nsatisfaefcory a year there still remained 35,000 bales of old stocks in first hands. About 4,000 bales of the new clip from Victoria and South Australia were included in this series ; the average result of prices was a fall of 7 to 12 per cent, on good combing merino and other more mai-ketable descriprions ; on coarse and cross-bred wools, poor and faulty parcels from 12 to 15 and even 20 per cent, in some instances. In sympathy with a falling market and very low values of Home-grown wool, all Colonial, coarse, and cross-bred produce had declined in price throughout the year especially ; the result being a reduction of 20 to 25. per cent, in values.

" In regarding the prices of manywools this season," says Messrs. JaCOMB and Son, "particularly in New Zealand and New South Wales, in grease, it must be borne in mind that the ' rendement ' after scouring is in many cases considerably less satisfactory than last year, by reason of their vasty and earthy condition. With a decreased import this year," says the same firm, " there have been 30,749 bales more catalogued than last ! This is accounted for by the increasing custom of importers offering wool in public sale with limits often far above market values and brokers' valuations; many parcels have this season thus passed twice and thrice through catalogues, often somewaat to their prejudice, and not to satisfactory result."