THE WOOL POSITION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15303, 26 August 1920, Page 9

THE WOOL POSITION.

t The following is Mr. .7. O'Neill's review of the proceedings .it the conference held at Wellington on August 18th, which he will present, to the chairman of the Hastings branch of the New Zealand Farmsrs' Union: — "-'■'

* Sir, —ln accordance witli instructions,

I attended the meeting of woolgrowers held m Wellington on August 18th, Cablegrams wore read by Hon. Mr. Mas 4 sey from the Director of Raw Materials, showing the. position of tho Imperial wool accumulations, which are as follows:

Total wool owned by the Imperial Gov? eminent on June oOtb. 2,805,50 i bales. 01. this 'amount 2,049,177 bales are Australian vnd 85,0,377 arc New Zealand. ■

It was suggested m cablegrams that all available storage In England was full| and that the Director would only lift ibout another 100,000 bales of New Zeat land wool before tho end of the present year. A motion asking him to lift alj there was space for m ships sailing d*rj ing that period was carried, and it is possible he will do this. Shduld ' he 'bhrji lift the 100.000 suggested by him, there will be m New Zealand m DecenineJ ■?i2,724 bales of last year's wool. I do noi know if this includes sllpe wools or not?, Should there be this amount, brokerwill nave great difficulty m dealing witli this year's crop of, say, 500,000 bales', It seems certain that as many as posj sible will have to store their own wool jn their farms. . i A committee has been m existence sinca last May to make all trie necessary nnani cial antl other arrangements' to cover the period for which wool will have to i>4 held. It is understood that the onl# wool for' which there is any demand will be very fine Romney and halfbred] with a coarse of 46's or better, and it ii suggested then that all wool. Yb'elow that rlass will require to he held over until opportunity to sell arises. In the: mean* time the committee is making inquiries} from the banks re advances ", against thh) season's clip to enable - fanners to carry on. The result of the committee's labors will 'be duly reported, to you. '

The question arises on what basis the advance will be made. This is rather flilbcult to arrive at, -but m Ju/i^. last> there was an auction sale m London of Argentine wool, and 3C's made 11. d per lb., and iO's made 13d. U this wool bad gone from New , Zealand,^ the cbarpep would amount to nearly 2_d per ' 11>._ leaving' about 9d for '36's and lo.d Xoj* 40's net. Of course, anything may bappen before December next, bbt it ts posjslble x tbat an" advance (which will have to be (.onsei'YatlVe), of, say 75 per cent, of the latter figures will be given. If. was made clear to us that the cause of th^ 'rouble was shortage of machinery to i deal with wools. There is an unsatisfied demand for woollen goods, and there is plenty of wool, but there is not sulllcient mills to cjitcb up on the demand. We were, also told that prior 1o the war it tool< 250.000 bales per mowtb to satisfy the. demand, whereas at present 225,000 per' month Is the copsumption. ■ 7 It is well known Drat <lurlng tho war that French and Dolginn woollen districts were occupied by Hie Germans, aiid the- mills "m ...those districts have not vol returned to their normal capacity. The Continent, which, m pre-war' time, took the whole of the -AVgentine 'and one-third of the Austral' an aiid. New Zealand *>boJ_ Is .at present ' unable to make llriarieial arrangements to buy" any, but wp are told that tlifere is every hope that these Arrangements will' be made shortly.