The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1886.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7114, 12 July 1886, Page 2

The Tarana ki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1886.

Although it does not affect this district to any large esteut, the welcome intelligence during the past week or so of the rise in the price of wool is very gratifying. It does not seem much, the rise of a penny per pound, but where millions of pounds are concerned the sum is a large one. Last year there was sent away from the colony 80,507,431 lbs. weight, whioh was valued at £8,205,275. A penny rise on the same quantity means an additional £800,447, to be distributed amongst the flockowners of New Zealand. Till we obtain advices frotQ J England we can only conjeoture as to the causes of this rise and competition amongst the foreign buyers. During the last two years tho steady fall has been most disheartening to the woolgrowers, and the "jump " in the price in London must be a cheering and encouraging turn of fortune's wheel for all concerned,- A Melbourne paper, referring to the rise, says: — "The grower was bound in a majority of cases to accept almost any price, and therefore the rise will go into the pockets of the wool brokers. If wool could be produced at all at fifteen pence per lb., eighteen pence means just as much sheer profit. It is virtually equivalent to the discovery of over a million and a-half of gold in some unexpected and cheaply worked colonial goldneld. The gradual advance since the last wool sales in London, and the marked improvement going on, may have been- discounted to a certain extent. Possibly it was c now or never ' with a good many unlucky wool-growers. It is no secret that numbers of pastoralists ' have been ' carried ' by the banks, mortgage and finance companies of recent years. That, however, does not alter the fact that the community generally must share in the increased value of our chief staple. Funds which have been locked up in advances on unprofitable stations, and on unsaleable wool, will now be liberated for employment in other branches of colonial industry and commerce, while financiers will be encouraged, and will feel themselves justified in the future in supporting pastoral enterprises when carried on by prudent men. One or two circumstances indicate that the present rise in London quotations may be explained on the simple and oldfashioned grounds that manufacturers find the normal demand for woollen and worsted goods increasing more rapidly than the supply of wool. It may be assumed that woollen manufacturers, in common with all other manufacturers in these days, have been purchasing raw material cautiously, and " from baud to mouth," during the last few months, and that they have maintained that policy as long as they dared. There has probably been no speculative buying of wool. The low " bank rate " in all the European capitals indicates that all through the markets speculation for the riso is still dormant, or dead. Indeed, the days when capitalists or middlemen took off the market large quantities of staple commodities, such as iron, cotton, oils, &c, and held them for an advauce, seem to have completely vanished. The present excited buying may be taken to be the competition of manufacturers, who intend to use what thoy buy, and are getting nervous about stocks. A sustained advance would, however, inevitably bring in speculators .with the intention ot holding wool for even belter prices than those now ruling, and that wouM ineau a rise on the top of the present rise. These aie the reasons given from a Melbourne point of view; but we think this ohahge for the better has a political significance, aud that it ;s owing to a feeling of insecurity— a prospect of war in the near future — that has given a firmness to tbe saleß. Whatever the cause may be the change is very satisfactory; and we hope that the advisee -will be permanent.