OUR ENGLISH WOOL LETTER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14236, 2 March 1917, Page 8

OUR ENGLISH WOOL LETTER.

PRIVATE WOOL INTEREST'S SACRIFICED TO EMPIRE'S ,NEED,

(From Our Special Correspondent.) ' BRADFORD, December 28, 1916. i The market thi*. "week" is m .a. very i quiet state, all firms having had Monday 1 and Tuesday holiday for Christmas. One 1 large mill is haying a whole week, due i to lack of wool, this firm being chiefly • engaged oh. fine quality worsteds for : dress goods and suitings. It is worth i while rememberitig. J'h&.ift .connection i with what we say later about- Government and wool supplies. A. few sales' of both merino % and crossbred tops are reported at lasJt week's - best - rates, and : probably before the next London gales open further big figures will be paid. ' The announcement that the last series would be curtailed by- one day caused- a - certain amount of forced buying at the closing sitting, and it is probable that the January sales will not open until the 4th or perhaps the* %tfr, jgrra -^aers wlig were counting on~tnese to ,r p u t-in stocks of wool may haye to. buy privately at more money. This uncertainty is very distressing! to th^, trade, because no man >~ caii' form any forecast, but merely, 1 as nearly as possible, work from hand to mouth. ...»■>♦.■ • WOOL SUPPLIES A NATIONAL CONSIDERATION. The wool trade to-day is experiencing, like most other important industries, restraints that have b96tf unknown, before.' A few weeks ago it was announced that no wool could be's'hipped from.. Ireland after November j several reasons being given for this. The Government .never stated one, qu^jn. the- trade itself it was thought that some ol tbe Irish farmers had been trying to &11 ueOr Wool,- which belongs to the Government, ;- as 1915 dip, whioh was, worth several, pence a lb more because iA'was free.' 1 Therefore the Government "took over what remained of the old wool .-at thp same rates as they paid for this last clip. It is known that they will take rrjver 1915* English wool also if farmers continue to hold it. There are not a fe\r. "farmers w.JiO: have been reserving what ..they had' ( .left of their 1915 clip* so Ahat.they fcould get a better price, butt thp "Gfcyennnent considers that. just ? .as , yn(l<pj_ira,bje as the withholding! 'of potatoes |trid grain. The result of this warning has beef, to! cause more old wool to come, on to. the market, and no doubt most farmers will do what they can to sell at good priceß m the open market, rather than at pence per lb f . 'less tq .th<& ... (government. %: ,. „ .•.„, Another form.' of Government intervention may be a fact before thi»'war. is over. Old Colonial wool is very dear, and may possibly continue to sell above the level, of prices that the A^y £kn> tracts Department \ is working on. -jit •would be no surprise, if any 'withholding' of this old wool^JJooTe" place, to see. the Government d&i«*atiai-Ab m tn#,,samo way as with ftwfte^^owft.*' Moreover, it may become necessary to take stocks of w.opl away . frppw mills that are^pjding them for the manufacture of civilian goods, and put Uhis wool to approved uses. The new tJensus forms, on which all-wool stocks are to^.be-Tecardedr'wit^ the purpose and '<ftfl.tii.anon tbej!. are in-' tended for, will be distributed to the