The Wool Clip

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 5964, 27 July 1912, Page 1

The Wool Clip

ANNUAL REVIEW AND STATISTICS COMPILED BY DAUGETY AND CO. We havo received a copy of Dalgety's Annual Wool Review for Aus. tralasia for the past season, published b>l Dalgety iand Company, Ltd., which is now iu its fourteenth • year of issue, and, as customary, appear* to have W»n carefully written, while the Statistics which relate to tho whole of tho Australasian sales aro complete and comprehensive. There are a nurriber of interest ing facts given in the publication, the most, prominent of which prdbablv is that the value of the past season's wool production iit (Australia a nd New' Zealand, for export, was 29A millions sterling, as compared with Ull miliums sterling for the previous season the difference in the value of tho two clips Swing accounted for by the average value per bale in IU 11-12 having been £ll los fid. and in 1910-11, i'l2 10s Id. A RECORD OlJl'.

...As was forecasted in -Dalgety's last year's Annual Review, the Australasian clip exceeded that of thvi previous year, which stood at 'the liin'ii water mark, a iul was above the general average oi excellence. Actual oversea shipments of wool during tho past twelve months have, amounted to -,0-0,!V1|7 bales (orHlil,515,'.'071b) from the Commonwealth, and -i'.O.aia bales (or HiSI.-'.lin.'.DiOlb) from New Zealand, a tola< of ,no less than 2,51.1,1)15 bales, 0 r 83-> valued at t'2 1 .),5'.'l ,871. Tho total value of the bales sold in Australasia has been •£22,682,()!)(), as against C2''>y!l(),(io2 in 1010-11.

AUSTRALASIAN" SHEEP NUMBERS. The docks in Australia anul NewZealand now total 117,Oilitif) 1, having increased since lasti year's returns wvre puiblishul 'bv the comparatively small number of t)7>7,48L head. Slue-p ntnnlKTs havo remained practically stationary during the past three; years, but the figures are higher than during any period of the past IS years, the previous record having been in IS9I, when the total reached 12-I,SHU,<I2O head. The smallness of the inn vase in recent years is largely attriibutabli; to tile very large numbers which have been slaughtered for export and loeal consumption, and it)i is significant that the opinion is generally held that sheep numbers were, prior to the drought, quite as high as could with safety bo carried in normal seasons.

There has l)Ooii a general all-round improvement in tlio larger (locks, and a very high standnixl lias been reached, especially in respect to merinos, a fact which will be appreciated when it is remembered that though I hero were many more sheep to 'shear say 20 years ago, the clip shorn during the past season eclipses all previous records, while thu wieigbt cut per li.*ad ds greater than in any country in the world, without am' deterioration in the wool, which comes an' easy first, though it; may not te so line a quality as lormer-

FUTURE PROSPECTS. As regards the future, Dalgcty and Company, Ltd., say that Acre are several factors which are likely to have an important bearing on the course of tjio wool market tho ensuing twelve months,' the lirst of these being the certainty of diminished Australian wool production owing to the severe, though short, drought recently experienced throughout most of the wool-growing districts of tho Commonwealth. Another is the great probability of a revision of the American wool tariff in favow of oversea woolgrawers, some pronouncement in respect to which may bo expected after th • Presidential election in .November next. The third is tho fact of favourable trade conditions generally, practically only affected at tho pro-s----ent tune by industrial troubles. Summing up the position as it alfeels woolprdducprs, they are of the opinion that the ensuing Australasian clip will come on to a favourable market, and that 1 there will be a strong demand from, all sections of buyers at prices showing an improvement on tha rates enforced in the past season. The clip as a whole cannot Ire equal, either in quality or condition, k> its predecessor, in addition to which it is inevitable that there; will be a lighter cut per sheep, so that the enhnnre:l values which it seems very likely will rule should compensate growers to some extent for the drawbacks which we fear most igrazers will experience.