WOOL COMMITTEE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1923, Page 6

WOOL COMMITTEE.

STATEMENT BY DR RE AKES. LIMITED WOOL CATALOGUES. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington. Dec. 22. Dr. Re<k?s. chairman of the New Zealand Wool Committee, mode tb-< fol* lo*ing atvewnt The wooi comm::t«e w.is in 1921 and the fact of it having continued in office up to now have been well known to all specially interested in the handling and sale of wool. The advantages which have been gained by reasonable limitation of catalogues have been very real and have operated in the best interests of growers as well as of the New Zealand trade generally and, as the result of this and the excellent work of the Bawra organisation, the surplus wool left over from the Imperial Government purchase has been gradually disposed of in conjunction with each year’s'clip without any dislocation of the market. It is very satisfactory to note that the sale of this surplus Imperial Government wool is now nearing its end, there being at the end of November only 193.000 bales of Australian and 77,000 bales of New Zealand wool left in the hands of the Bawra Association for disposal. EFFECT ON THE MARKET. The limitation of wool catalogues is by no means limited to New Zealand, but is ako exercised in Australia and in London. For instance I am advised that in Australia, where the total quantity of wool sold annually is about four times that sold in New Zealand, the coming January sales are limited to 200,000 bales in the aggregate. .The un<usually dry season in the Dominion has -caused much greater quantities of wool than usual to be available for the Janu- • ary sales, and, if this is thrown unre.strictedly upon the market in excessive quantity, the grower is likely to suffer. Quite apart from the probable ad- . verse effect upon the market of an excessive quantity within a short period there is the question of properly displaying each lot, so that buyers can correctly judge its value to them, a matter of importance to sellers, upon whom the effect of any disadvantages in this respect must fall. The feeling of growers that they want to take advantage of the present good market and to realise upon their clip as soon a« possible is quite understandable but it must be realised that temporarily overloading the market Is likely to do them more harm than good, while on the other hand the judicious spreading of offerings is in the interests of all concerned. COMING WANGANUI SALES. As regards the special case of the coming Wanganui sale the quantity now allotted is 22'500 bales. Last season the largest catalogue offered at Wanganui was 18,IOS bales fin February), while the total amount sold at Wanganui during the season was 52.059 bales, at Christchurch 66.305 bales, Napier 81,502 bales, and Wellington 114,558 bales. These figures indicate; that noth ing inequitable has been done in connection with the coming Wanganui sale. Indeed, as a matter of fact, the committee has tried to meet Wanganui ‘ brokers as far as it possibly could when considering the interests of the Dominion as a whole. Although Wanganui is the last centre to establish wool sales it h«n fared better than some older established centres and the allocation for the January sa’e of 2-2500 bales is 6700 bales in excess of its relative proportion. It is a matter of regret that the que-tion of Wanganui versus Wellington should have been raised. As a matter of fact. Wellington has never been «Glc.r’ted its full proportion, as comxarc> with other centres, whLr. have at

times been allowed to exceed their relative full proportion. So far as the committee is concerned it was continued in office this season at the special and unanimous request of the New Zealand Woolbrokers’ Association, the members of which naturally act in the interests of their farmer clients, and the one aim of the committee has 'been fairly and impartially to carry out its work to the best advantage of the wool growers throughout the Dominion.