WOOL PROSPECTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14064, 23 November 1909, Page 3

WOOL PROSPECTS.

AFTER CHRISTCHURCH. A reporter of the "Otago Daily Times," in conversation with woolbuyers who had just returned from the Christchurch wool sales, was informed that there was every likelihood of prices being maintained at the present high level for a little time yet. The buyers expressed the opinion that the unusual prices at present being received for wool were due, to some exteut, at anyratc, • to the .operations of speculators. It is well-known that in Britain and on the Continent extremely small stocks of the raw product are at present being held, and that the demand of the manufacturers is imperative. It is confidently expected, therefore, that high prices will rule at the oilier side of the world during the next two months — that is, until the market is made easier by the arrival of the first of the season's shipments from the Antipodes —and speculators are buying _ with the intention of shipping for the January sales in London. As the Bradford and Continental buyers must have wool, and the American representatives cannot afford to let slip any opportunity of securing the class of wool they require, keen competition has resulted, and the rising prices recorded at Napier, Wellington, and Christchurch have followed as a matter of course. Asked how long these nrices would be maintained, the buvers" hinted that it would depend, to" a very large extent, on, freights available. Once it became too late to satisfy the keen European demand per medium of the January sales, a falling awav in prices would probably be noted, but it was not anticipated that this decrease would be very great. Wool, it was believed, would continue to be in keen demand at all of this season's sales. In reply to a further question, the buyers said that smaller prices might nossihly he observed at the t)unedin wool sale early m December but on that point they did not rare to swak with too great a degree of authority.