Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 10. 1901 THE WOOL MARKET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9117, 10 April 1901, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 10. 1901 THE WOOL MARKET.

Twelve months ago the wool market gave promise of a brighter future j to-day Australasian crossbred\ wools are at absolutely the lowest level ever known, and merino wools- are down to within 10 per cent, of the lowest point. In one year the price of the latter has dropped, in round numbers, £10 per bale. In January, 1900, supev sixties tops in Bradford were quoted at 32id; in our Satur day's cables they were quoted at 19d. The collapse of prices is analysed and explained iu an interesting article in the current number of the Australasian Insurance and Banking TRecord. The great cause of the slump, the writer considers, is ■'■that the . previous rise was too high. There was in 1899 every justification for a moderate rise, but as a matter of fact wool was "boomed", to an extent hardly ever"before experienced in the history of. the trade. Iu one year merino wool rose in value about 70.per cent. "Two results followed this great rise. One was/ that a large number of firms found that they had bought more wool than they j could comfortably pay for, and the. other! was that-the-great rise in the prices of I manufactured goods checked consumption. These two combined made it impossible for.tlie rise to be maintained, and the reaction set. in. Not only has the rise of 1899 been entirely lost, but we are now di»wn to the level of four years ago." There can be no doubt, the writer contiirnet., that the experience of 1900 has been a terrible lesson to the wool Irade, and it will probably be many years be. fore another boom takes place.. Prices, however, are now so low that it seems impossible that they can fall lower, and there are various factors to lead us to expect that they will be slightly enhanced. Firstly, the low price of wool j should lead to greater consumption, and this, combined with the lessened product, ought to bring about a more healthy .state in the market. As to the deficiency in the Australasian output, we glean some most interesting figures from* the article quoted. The total production for 1899 tit Australia and New Zealand was 1,600,000 bales,, as against 1,675,000 bales in 1898, thus showing a decrease of 75,000 bales. For 1900 the clip is estimated to be about the same as in 18S9. It is more than 300,000 bales less than the output in 1894, and 379,000 less than that of 1893. Taking the clip this year as being the same as last, the Record estimates that the clip of 1900 will realise about: £17,600,000, or £8,500,000 less than did the 1899 clip, similar in size. To find an Australasian clip worth £17,600,000 we have to gp bacii; fourteen years, to the clip of 1886. So far as Nev^ Zealand is concerned, it' is satisfactory to note that the 1899 clip showed.au increase of 2000 bales, as compared with that of the preceding year, and it is expected that at last shearing the rate/of increase will' have been fully maintained. The drought in Queenslaud is_mainly responsible" for the great shrinkage m the output'of Australia.. During 1900,; the colony was visited' by ''absolutely the worst drought ever known by while men." The result, is -that out of 15,226.479 sheep alive at the end of 1899, it i© believed that there could not be much more than 8,000,000 alive at the end of 1900. The sheep of Australasia, it is estimated, have fallen in eight years from 124,500,000 in 1891Jito under 9,5,000,000 in 1899, and the number at the end of 1900, it is believed, will be considerably less—perhaps not more thai! 90,000,000.* "It is probable, however," the .Record consolingly adds, "that the minimum has now been realised, and l/llilt; the figures for the. end of this year and subsequently will show^ improvement." '