BRADFORD "BEARS"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16826, 13 December 1928, Page 7

BRADFORD "BEARS"

WOOL MEN COMPLAIN - - BRISBANE, Nov. 24. Wool men in Queensland complain that reports from Bradford are pessimistic and designed to "bear" the market. Perhaps the complaints are not without warrant. It is granted that the price of tops seems rather out of. proportion t<> the cost of the raw material, and; that Bradford may have had, in-* the "'post couple of years, an indifferent time"; but it is taken as sufficient reply from the growers' point of view that the higher prices are given by the people of oth* nations, competitors of Bradford.', In Queensland, English buying is comparatively negligible. At the recent sales, and they were about normal,, the Japanese were the keenest buyers, and took approximately a third of the whole catalogue, while France and Germany were also very active. Recent Bradford comment, -while on the lines of "I told you so,"'on a drop in prices a few months ago, said :—"Uhdoubtedlv some kinds of wool have been too dear." and "For over -a year it has been rather ridiculous to find stained Sydnoy and Queensland carbonising locks costing as many pence per clean pound, after carbonising, as would tuy good free combing 64's wool." In other words, the Continental buyers do- not know their business. A good deal ,of the Bradford criticism is resented in Queensland. -