OUR ENGLISH WOOL LETTER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13546, 25 November 1914, Page 8

OUR ENGLISH WOOL LETTER.

MOST HISTORICAL SALES EVER KNOWN. CROSSBREDS BOOM. (From Our Spcial Correspondent. LONDON, October 9, 4-914. The fifth series o* London^ sales which began on Tuesday" laet" will live. long m tho minds of all who were there. It is open to serious doubt if there has •ver been another series like it. The great war now m progress .is (responsible for many things which may never occur again. We are living m historical .times, and for us m the wool trade they are doubly historic. Has there ever been another series of sales' whose holding was fiercely opposed -" by -Rradford for three weeks, which, -were .cut downto five selling days on that account, which were attended' by lessi 'th&nV'a' dozen Continental buyers, at whichnine out of every ten buyers, present were wanting coarse and medium" crttss--breds. and at which the Government prohibited the export of wdoV trorn this' country? Bradford has , opposed sales before, on the farthing bids question, but we do not remember -that the length of the series was halved on that account. There was a ( time long ago when very few Continental buyers came, but even during the- FraricoPru3sian war some -came across. Never has the demand for crossbreds been so keen, and i-t .is many generations - .ago since the Government put an embargo on wool. That is why w© shall.remember this series. THE SPIRIT OF THE BUYERS:Needless to say, the!. seats occjipied on previous series by • German "buyers . were either empty or .filled *by Englishmen. The reception, of. any . German buyer m Coleman Stre.eft 7 '''W6uld^a|^e; present moment be .^ery % ebld^'iff'"©^^ way, but if he gaveahy prWobatldn* he might find it ver£ hot m another. , Q ne or two Frenchmen' were* preseli*- fi*bm Roubaix. ,'. They were cheerful" eho*u£:h as regards the war. andthbifgh/ they^admit that :their "mills. a*a' 'barely .rhltfriiri£' half tune, the^had to come .ovre^'fW 'get a little wool to kee£ going:"' 'Belgian, buyers were entirely ..absent-' . doubtless considered^ it ; usia&ss ; toy buy wool with their industry in" to, "state J pt chaos. Of course, none yrere present from Verviei's, which town- and .all the wool m. it. worth speaking of is m the hands of the Germans'. >Ohe"!.J6i-- .two Russians and Italians were present,, but they were very. qUi«H/ -A <few Dutchmen had come over .who hadhever been before, . ostensibly ' to buy WOolfdr themselves but m 'rfeshipjiit from Holland to Germany. H6w''foollsh they must have felt on learning that exports from the United"* Kihgdbm^wa*^ prohibited ! About I 'four, TJnited^St^tes buyers were over, but like the reat^bf' the foreigners, did ltt£l£.- !-,;»*';• v..- '"'":! The small number-^f 're'pfeseiStatiVfes! from other countries was easily.^ ,xnade; up for by the crowd of homertradeynieii. Many new faces were .upyin-^Londoni who liad never come to buy wool here before. The Government or4ers._have been placed all over .• thtfvl^f^eli^Ei&g--doni. and men f Aim ' Irish, "Scotcß, West Riding, and "WeSt. o^' V'Enjjlfidd mills were present for wool to use m Government goodis. ' ■'l^^^saliWpS^ was more crowded than for many years, "'and most of the regular buyers and practically every one of the new men were up for crossbreds. MERINO VALUES. From the above the reader can form a fairly accurate guess to the directions m which values moved; but how far m these directions he may find difficult to answer. Some remarkable fluctuations were seen. ! Merinos, as expectecl, fell, but no more than 10 per cent, at the opening night for good combing wools. There were some fai/ needs to be filled m Rradfordi»-and. the decline was not as large as e^pfect^d. ©f course, now and again as mueha* a full 15 per cent, fall- occurred. The trade does not want big weights oi merinos at the present time, . and for the actual consumption of them that is proceeding and wha^rit will be during the doming three; months, we considei fine Wools . havei done; Jteaey well indeed. CROSSBRED This paragraph will be m a different strain altogether. Every manufacturer m Great Britain and Ireland ' who had any business instinct and who oould make blankets, hosiery, ajnd khaM overcoatings has been keeir-iqr oi'ders.ifretoa tho Go v^ rnm ent.-- r'rMillS-' :eT.CTywKire have submitted samples* and*"have" received contracts of varying sizes. As is easily understood, it would have been toolish to buy < big weights of suitable wools for khaki before_ithe o^ders.^aa-ue along, and most manTifaT_tw#?-"-refrain-ed from doing this, although; 1 they 'saw the prices for these materials were rising steadily. . As. the -. Government gave out more orders, 'more-T.-mianufac-•lurers came into the market -for. the raw materials, .. with Y the?; if?ujt; .tjiat Yorkshire's stocks,- have ', long beaii cleared up and users have been forcfed to oome to London tq buy, what, tjijey could. Whereaar, by n<*t b^iyyi^', b'efdfe, they avoided having' the wool and no orders, to-day there are dozens" of men who have oixiers arid 'n6. .wool^ or. ''only very little. They "have m . ; S<>injß -c-Jges bouglit privately from -the ;^L6nd9n brokers, at 8d a: IbT ' laboye'iast b&Wb -rates for suitable stipes ' and 'gre^ahV lambs. Some thought they would*' < wSit till the sales, 1 as the wool wanted might then be cheaper. As things have tnrifed out, 30,000 bales of- -'*khaki , *-*-wools have been sold privately during the interval, leaving only 23,000 bales of crossbreds for 1 those •'sales.*" '' The tt trad# .could do M r ith four times that; weighs. Needless to say, there was'a penect yell for suitable wools for Government work. Last sales' rates . we*e* lutely forgotten. Medium atatfc coarße aii pcs rose from 20 to 30 per cent., as also did greasy • rtiedSUnr) ' crossbred lambs. It was these very classes that sagged so badly last sales. *Kne*--greaßy crossbreds were about 5 per cent, dearer, prices being paid a.y fraction higher than -the excellent values made m July. Greasy medium and wools were 10 ibercenty'dearef? > '" A -'<j THE GOVERNMENT EMBARGO; It is rw> exaggeration to describe the announcement of this as starain^.' " It is well-known "fchat forafew'Weeks'Gernnany has been doing her utmost' to get v»-00l m this country, operatiaigy x>f course, through neutrajs. Bradford firms have received orders to buy. at - the present London sales. / So -have-the London brokers, and it is 'a '^le.Qtii'e to sreport that in' -several- 1 Ciaseß^ -the orders were refused and sent back. Many shipments have actually gone to Holland and Sweden, piymenfe*bei^- w hia*d*'e by banks on receiptof a v biil dfladmg.' l At least one of the _ firms who have been fouyihg or inquiring is -riot-in tlieywool trade at all. We could say xnuoh more and open our readers' eyes, to < the facts twice as wide, but' .WitßdhtVbetra^ini the confidence reposed 'iff' us J v/e think we have said enough to show that Germany has hough* yitt:Eng^ land, and was trying tq '.buy more, It is well-known that the -German armies are badly irl lieed' " 6f " fiitther clothing. '* • ' •*-<.-?. ••'<•'-. .■.■■-■■«a» ')'>-, Still, iv spite of all this, when the .selling broker, immediately before the sale began, read out a Government notice to the effect that wool exports to all but allied countries t Spain and Portugal, was -••- prohibited, *'5ina Iffl&f-ixi the Baltic Russian ports, ftiostiof tthotfe present were ejirprised. The notice was the occasion for a burst of cheers. It also said that -the prohibition, might' he extended a-t any moment '--'•' That moment came later m the afternoon, about an hour and a half before- the sale closed. Wool exports to anywhere Irom the United Kingdom were stopped. The further modification'* f whidh. too* tp"a«> on the second day'we give In "the next paragraph. THE EMBARGO AND ITS EFFECT. The embargo proliibits'.lJthe.'t export Irom -tlie United Kingdom of all crossbred wool, tops, yarns,, noils • -and wastes. On the opening day it was announced that the export'- *of ALL wool y was forbidden, but : at the. second- 'day'-a Jl*' 4 sale a message was received from the '■ ' . IRoarcl of Trade to the effect .yvthat P& liof rises for the export of merino quali%tf- ties only to Allied nations-' will .s'• Be |< granted if tlie shippers can satisfy the JL,.' /jfficials that the wool is -to bo manufac£v;.' ttured m the country to which it goes jjj.- and is not for re-sale from that country. E&; -On the 'selli'rtg r of crosphredS"'the l "em* m. baigo has had no e'fje6tv - ojM^'Wbssbred X qualities are as dear *&" every' and "show W m signs of falling 'at :ftll. ■^Ui^m»imti Wjt * ia all up and down the couhtry nave •■ ' ■"■■ • *v yy- . ■•'Va**'<s ?»?<!?•?-..'

to have them, and Scotland as well as the West Riding is paying some big prices for "khaki" wools. The home trade can consume all -that are available and twice or three times as much again. At first sight it seemed that the embargo, by limiting -the market, would send- down 'crossbred values. If it had done it would have been a fine thing for many manufacturers, who, through being compelled to buy wool at ruling rates, will have no profit and perhaps loss' on their khaki orders. As it has turned out, values ha.ye shown not the slightest weakness, and it is m every grower's interest to ship as much wool suitable for military fabrics to this country as fast as he can. The effect of the embargo has been , 'seen' most m missing Continental competition. One buying broker .tliat usually purchases big weights of •merinos was doubtless wanting crossbred-?, but the embargo has elf eotively stopped what little competition they 'rriignt have given France has not done a great deal. Some large needs for merinos still exist m Bradford, and these wools are only on average 10 per cent, dowii on last" sale's rates, though will probably come down as much again inside the 'next three months. This series the home trade is taking all the wool, outside nations being a negligible quantnty. TherA is a rumor that is semi-officiallv confirmed to the effect that there will ..be another week's sale at the end of j October or beginning, of November. tV^ amm^^ t^LmWlm t mrm m m\m%%mmmmmrmmWsym%mitVMJ