WOOL IN THE SADDLE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16424, 7 May 1924, Page 7

WOOL IN THE SADDLE.

THE ADVANCE IN PRICES. (Special Correspondent.) BRADFORD, .March 4.—The rest- of the textile industry does not move forward at the .same speed as the raw material and there are many users today who are only afraid-that another big rise in raw wool is probable. It means that, they are going to find new cloth orders more difficult than ever to get and a further rise in the prices of shoddy and waste products is certain. At the Liverpool sale last week greasy Melbourne 48’s good style fleeces were selling „•]t up to 'I'M, whereas one could have bought the same wools in London a month ago at 19d. Several of the largest Bradford topmakers were keen buyers of medium and Jow crossbreds and paid prices comparable to those for New Zealand wools also, even though they word not entirely free of seed. It is stated that one or two firms are finding: their arrivals out of this season’s imports do not come in as quickly as they expected, and are being forced into the market, to buy a certain amount. As only small weights are being offered, prices have advanced sharply. In slipes also, there has been a surprising rise in medium and low wools. For five or six weeks superior luilfbred sliped combing lambs have been making from 36d to 38d or 39d, so that there was no surprise expressed in Liverpool when a lot of such wools, slightly creamy through being four years old, reached 37d; but when ordinary .sheeps’ combing slipes of super 50’s quality made 32d, 48’s 27c1, and 46’s 23d, buyers were unanimous in their statements that compared with a month ago prices had advanced 15 per cent. LESS WOOL FOE. LONDON. The series of London sales that opens next Tuesday is a week later _ than originally intended'. The dock strike is the reason given lor the postponement, as it prevented the unloading of one or two boats. If these boats lmd been excluded,'it is probable that not more than 60,000 bales of wool could have been got together for the series, which, of course, only meant five selling' days, or one week. London selling brokers have sent their representatives round Bradford and other wool centres in England to see if any users or merchants have wool they wish to dispose of. It is a fact that at last the selling brokers appear to have awakened tof the real position. One or two of them have seen for the last two years what a deep move the Australian selling firms made when they insisted that all Bawra wool should be sold on this side. They knew that it would crowd out English warehouses and selling machinery so that there would be very little inducement for the grower to send his new wool here. The Australian firms thus obtained a. hold on most of the new wool that is being produced in the colonies, and there is comparatively little sent direct from the station toi Coleman Street. By the. admission of wool from one or two more boats, the next series of London sales will see the offering of about 120,CC0 bales, 13,500 of which are South American. ’ A considerable part of the Victorian, New South. Wales, Queensland, and West Australian wools offered are speculators’ wools and not direct clips.