THE LONGWOOL SHEEP SALE FIASCO IN SYDNEY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1832, 6 August 1895, Page 4

THE LONGWOOL SHEEP SALE FIASCO IN SYDNEY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMARU HERALD

Sir, — As an old New Zealander, and one still feeling a great interest m everything that concerns the welfare of that colony, I followed closely the proceedings of the late sheep sales from first, to last, and beg the favour of a little space m your valuable journal to record my impressions for the information of those who were not here, but who have a direct interest m the matter. The selling of New Zealand stud sheep m Sydney was started three years ago. The first year's' sales were very satisfactory indeed ; good prices were realised, and buyers were thoroughly satisfied with their purchases. The following year the number of sheep sent over was largely increased,, the number of selling agents was greater, and the quality of the sheep was by no means so uniformly good. Notwithstanding this, however, all the sheep found buyers at from fairly to highly satisfactory prices. This year the sales can only be described as a fiasco, and my object m writing is to endeavour to set forth the conditions which appear to me to have made them so. They are as follow :— Ist. There were far too many sheep sent over, say about 8500 long wools, (about 1000 of which came from Tasmania). 2nd. The placing of the sheep m the hands of too many agents. 3rd. The incomprehensible manner m which time was wasted, which must have resulted m many country buyers being obliged to return home before the sales were anything like concluded. 4th. The dry season being experienced here m many districts, amounting to a drought. As to the number of sheep and the number of agents, one has of course no means of knowing upon what advice the New Zealanders acted m sending over such an enormous number of sheep,but one is tempted to fear, seeing the competition for business that must exist where so many different agents are concerned, that out of this multitude of counsellors there has not come wisdom.andit seems to me that m their own interest the New Zealand breeders should discontinue the practice of dividing their consignments into the hands of so many salesmen. "Where this is done, one agent is apt rather to endeavour to make points against his rival than to study the interest of Vendors asawhole, and the buying competition is considerably weakened by the sheep being distributed m a number of hands and places, instead of being concentrated at one point. What I would recommend is that by some process or other New Zealand should select an agent here— the best one they can get — and concentrate the whole of their consignments m his hands. Some system should also be established m your colony by which the advice of the agent at this end as to the number and description of sheep that the Sydney market can absorb at renuuierative rates can be given full effect to. The solution of the whole difficulty is " Combine, combine, combine." Now as to the extraordinary waste of time m the conduct of the sales. 1 observed by the various catalogues the following order of sales had been arranged by the auctioneers, and on making inquiries I found this had been arranged by the very proper system of drawing lots : — Order of sales : — Merinos : Goldsbrough, Mort and Co. Limited; Hill, Clark and Co. m conjunction with Powers, Rutherford and Co. ; F. G. Weaver. Longwools. : Goldsbrough, Mort and Co. Limited ; Pitt, Son and JBadgery Limited ; Harrison, Jones and Devlin, Limited; Hall, Clark and Co. m conjunction with Powers, Rutherford and Co. ; \V. H. Graves and Son m conjunction with N.Z.L. and M.A, Co. Ltd. - The first firm on the list, Messrs Goldsbrough and Co., commenced their sale of merinos on Wednesday morning, 3rd July, at 10 a.m., selling throughout the entire day, resuming on Thursday morning, and concluding their sale about 12.45 p.m. One would naturally have supposed that the auctioneer next on the list would have proceeded with his sale, and sold throughout that afternoon, but as a matter of fact nothing more was done that day.Messrs Hill, Clark and Co not commencing their merino sale till Friday morning the sth instant. This sale was concluded- between 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock of. the same day, and to my amazement nothing more was done m the way of selling sheep till Monday morning the Bth inst., when Mr F. G. Weaver commenced his sale. In the meantime one heard m all directions visitors from the country, who had come to Sydney to buy sheep, bitterly complaining of this loss of time, while at every turn one encountered indignant New Zealand owners wondering what game was being played,: as the delay was disastrous to the sale of their sheep, and involved a very .: serious increase of expense m their agistment charges. As I have said, Mr Weaver commenced his sale on Monday, the Bth instant, finishing that afternoon. On Tuesday morning, the 9th inst, six days after the commencement of the series, the longwool sheep sales were opened by Messrs Goldsbrough.Mort and Co., who cut out before 12.30 p.m. the same day. I thought to myself, "Surely there will be no more delay, now that the New Zealand' sheep have at last been commenced upon," but another disappointment for all interested was m store. The next sale, Messrs Pitt, Son and Badgery's, instead of going on that afternoon, was not . commenced till Wednesday morning, the 10th inst. at half-past 10" o'clock. At its conclusion there followed Messrs Harrison, Jones and Devlin, and Messrs Hill, Clark and Co. (m conjunction with Messrs Powers, Rutherford and Co.), who m turn finished at about 2.45 p.m. on Friday, the 12th instant. There was then still left the largest catalogue of New Zealand sheep, that of the New Zealand Loan _and Mercantile . .Agency Company, m conjunction with Messrs Warden JJany Graves and Son. This aale was commenced on Friday at 3 p.m. and continued to its conclusion on Saturday afternoon, between 4 and 5 o'clock. The Sydney sheep sales of 1895 therefore extended over a pel-ion of eleven weary days. How country buyers with their properties to look after could possibly have been expected to remain m Sydney for such a length of time is a problem I am unable to solve, ludeed as a matter of faut I was informed that a large number of buyers had left for their homes long before the sales were completed. On making inquiries from some of the auctioneers as to how such an apparently unbusinesslike proceeding had occurred, I was referred to an agreement which had been entered into and signed by all the agents holding sales, which agreement appeared m full m Messrs Goldsbrough, Mort and Co's catalogue. Instead of this agreement throwing any light on the matter, it further puzzled me, as to me it appeared to provide distinctly for the business of the sales proceeding with despatch instead of being drawn out as I : have described. I found that one of the clauses (No. 6) provided that : " The sales each day shall commence at 10 a.m., and continue with a break of an hour for luncheon until 5 p.m." In view of the proceedings having been so widely at variance with this portion of the agreement, I prosecuted , my inquiries further, and was informed that the explanation of the whole matter was to be found m clause No. 3 of the agreement, which read as follows : " Each auctioneer shall be allowed time for the conduct of his sales calculated at the rate of one minute and a quarter per lot to be offered m accordance witlr his catalogue." Incredible as it may seem, the position taken up by the auctioneers who had drawn an early position m the. order of sales.- was- that clause No. 6 was overridden by clause No. 3, and that if an auctioneer actually required only a traction of his time ullowaijce no" further business could be done, notwithstanding

clause 6, until the full time allowance' had expired. That a number of business men dealing with important interests could deal with these interests m such a manner will no doubt be as puzzling to your readers as it is to me. It reminds one very forcibly of the old adage, "Every man for himself, and de'il take the hindmost." I have now only to deal with the fourth cause to which I have attributed the fiasco, namely, the dry season being experienced here.. This rid doubt was an important contributing cause, but had arrangements been made on the lines I have Ventured to suggest, viz., that there should be a concentration of interests both m Now Zealand and here, there would have been sent over only such a number of sheep as fcliere existed a satisfactory market for, ajnd drought or no drought there would have been no ftfisco. : With my apologies for the length to which- this letter hasextended, the excuse for which must bemy desire that my many friends m New Zealand should have nn unvarnished statement of the facts connected with these sales as far as I could relate them,

lam, etc., An Ex-New Zealandbh m Sydney Sydney, 22nd July, 1895.