SIGNS OF STABILITY.

Wairarapa Age, 13 March 1922, Page 4

SIGNS OF STABILITY.

The wool sale in Wellington on Friday should give more cause for real satisfaction to the people o'f New Zealand than any other recent development in the return to normal conditions. In view of the momentary drop in prices at the March series in London, it was anticipated in some quarters that there would be a sympathetic drop in NewZealand. There has not been a drop. On the other hand there has been n further hareding, not very great, but quite 'perceptible especially with regard to coarser wools. It is early yet to cry that we arc out of the slump, tor prices still leave the grower with a loss on the cost of production, but it is satisfactory to observe the continued ability of the market to absorb the offerings, in spite of the steady re alisation of stocks from the B.A.W.R.A. reserves. New Zealand’s-. cure wall be worked more amongst the masses of Europe than anywhere else. Our customers are primarily the British people. Through the slump and unsettled political conditions they have been out of the market for a year or two past. Millions of them have been unemployed, and millions more so uncertain in their earnings that they have been unable to purchase what they required, either in meat and dairy produce or in wool. The trade slump in Britain cannot be properly cured until Britain’s own customers cn the Continent of Europe—-the mashes of Germany, Russia and the East who have been impoverished b”

the war—arc once more able to buy Il is only within the last few r months that signs of this recovery have bee:, apparent. The civil fighting on the coni tinent has more or less ceased, even in Russia, and with the return of peace the masses there will gradually become able to attend to their wants in food and clothing. The shortage of wool and woollens ii? Europe must be intense. It is now seven years since rawwool and woollen manufactures found their way freely into Europe, and the great mass of the population of Europe must be out at elbows and living in rags. The steady absorption of our wools during the last six months is evidence of the slow recovery of the people of Europe, upon whom those of Britain so largely depend for their prosperity. That recovery will in all probability continue at an increasing pace, and the woolgrowers of NewZealand have good grounds for look- . ing forward hopefully to the next se t , son’s clip.