THE WOOL MARKET.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 322, 10 January 1907, Page 6

THE WOOL MARKET.

The Bradford correspondent of the Napier Telegraph, reviewing the wool market, says: On the lips of everyone is the question, What of the future ? He would be a very wise man who could prognosticate with absolute certainty what is going to happen within the next six months. My own personal view is that the prices are going to keep moderately steady, and it does not look as if we were going to have cheaper wool. All along I have contended that while the increase has been over-estimated, consumption has been under-valued. Bradford wool men especially need to broaden their vision, and to widen their conception as to the requirements of the world’s needs. Everybody this last six months has been working up almost to the last pound of material. The bulk of fine wool users have been forced into the market this last month with the result that merinos have improved notwithstanding we are fast approaching adequate supplies. Crossbred stocks of good combing wool exist nowhere except in the hands of the English stapler, and not much colonial is going to be available until the turn of the year. Let the broad principle of supply and demand operate without so many outside, fictitious and unnatural factors being introduced, and then even the wool trade will go on smoothly. But when men begin to tamper with artificial means in order to depress prices, it is only a question of time when the hollowness of their tricks become apparent, and as a rule the biter gets bitten. Trade is good, consumption is heavy, and that is the best asset still of the wool trade.