SPIRITED BIDDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 53, 4 March 1939, Page 10

SPIRITED BIDDING

CHRISTCHURCH WOOL SALE COMPLETE CLEARANCE AT AUCTION IMPROVEMENT IN AVERAGE WOOLS I Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, March 3. The third wool sale of the season was held to-day when 24,254 bales were submitted to a full attendance of buyers. There was a good average selection comprising mainly fine quality wools from the plains and foothills. These opened up generally sound, well grown and of fair colour, but in most cases the wools were a little more dusty and were heavier in condition than at the earlier sales. Yolk stain was also more apparent, though it was not as bad as last season. Very little .seedy wool was included in the catalogues. Bidding was spirited and general, main competition coming from Bradford and the Continent. Local mills w ere again operating on super lots and America was interested in suitable wools. A complete clearance of the catalogues was effected at auction.

Under a strong and widely distributed demand, average wools improved in price by about a halfpenny when compared with the rates at the second sale at the end of January. The improvement was general over all qualities and as the bulk of the wool offered at the third sale is made up of average halfbreds, three-quarterbreds and crossbreds, the result was satisfactory. Super wools, which were offered only in small quantities, were cheaper and best spinner’s wools and were also a little down. The sale was notable for the very small total of passings. Of the catalogue of 24,233 bales fewer than 250 bales failed to change hands at auction. It is seldom, even in times of high prices, that the percentage is so small. The value of wool at present is too low to allow more than a few particularly fortunately placed farmers to get their money back, but growers have met the market exceptionally well. Bradford and Continental buyers, particularly German operators, were active throughout the sale and there were a number of useful American orders. Japan bought a little. The demand appears to have widened considerably since the second sale here, but there has been no relaxation of the rigid limits to which most buyers were operating. It frequently occurred that eight or ten buyers would be noisily on their feet all calling the same price, and would resume their seats when one of them raised the bid a farthing. There seems to be no marked disposition to return to the days of wide difference in price

for fine and coarse wools. Top price was 15« d for four bale from Marlborough.