FINANCE & COMMERCE

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 22 May 1922, Page 2

FINANCE & COMMERCE

THE WOOL MARKET. WOOL SALES CLOSE. PRICES STEADILY 7 HARDEN. Per Press , Association —Copyright. London, May 20. The wool sales have closed. The total offered was 157,721 bales and all was sold. All sections of the trade operated freely throughout. The United States was active in medium and fine crossbred and the Continental and Home demand was fully maintained for all merinos, lower grades and crossbreds. Prices steadily hardened. Best merinos closed 7-J per cent, above March, medium 15, all scoured merinos 15, fine cross breds 10, other sorts 15 to 20, all scoured 10, lambs five. POSITION HEALTHY. A confident tone prevails and the position appears healthy. PRIVATE ADVICE. The N.M. & A. Co. Ltd (Waimate) has received the following cable from their London office: —“The auctions closed here to-day with a very firm demand, buyers operating freely. Compared with opening rates we quote: Merino and halfbred unchanged; medium merino and halfbreds Jd dearer compared with close of last sale. We quote slipe woo], fine crossbred ljd dearer, other Id dearer. HOME MARKETS. LONDON QUOTATION. London, May 20. Wheat cargoes are lowering owing to the American weakness. Sheep: Canterbury light BJd, medium 7 id, heavy 6|d, North Islands 7 l-8d to 7 3-8 d; New Zealand ewes 6 l-8d; Australian first 6 3-Bd, seconds 6 3-8 d; ewes 6 1-8; South American light 7d. Lambs: Canterbury seconds IOJd, Southland lid; North Island selected 11 l-Bd, ordinary 104 d. COTTON STRIKE* SETTLED. London, May 20. The cotton wages dispute has been settled and work will be resumed on Monday. HIDES. NORTH ISLAND SALES. During the last-week hide and skin sales were held at New Plymouth, ■. Stratford, Wanganui, and Palmerston North. The total offerings at the four centres is estimated at about 3000 hides. The top price for salted sheep skins was 3s 2d for longwools, obtained at the New Plymouth sale. The top price for heavy hides was 12Jd, which was obtained at Stratford. Calf and yearling skins were freely purchased by exporters, and the pricse were in favour of sellers. The highest price realised for calfskins was 13Jd at Palmerston North. DAIRY POOL. CRITICISED IN OLD COUNTRY. London, May 20. The Financial News publishes an article by a colonial importer declaring that after being formed the New Zealand dairy produe e pool made use of the existing channels of distribution long enough to give them an elementary knowledge of marketing and distribution. They will appoint their own agents in the United Kingdom, eliminating all private Anns, thereby confiscating businesses built up by millions of capital in the past half century. The assurance given by supporters of the pool that it is intended to distribute all produee through existing channels is valueless, as the proposed company to finance and conduct the pool is not yet formed. Therefore nobody has | power of authority to giv e such as--1 surance.

N.Z. BUTTER IN EN( 1 GOOD NEWS FOB HOU AT HOME. The Sheffield Weekly News toys: — Much interest has been caused in the butter and caterhig trades during the past week at the arrival m the country of the new season’s butter supplies from New Zealand. The event is of particular importance to housewives at the present moment —when -foodprices show a> disinclination to faJF as,much as they might—for the Now Zealand butter will be retailed ®t’fydfflEls 3d to Is 5d per pound, as agaiiiWyis 9d and Is lOd per pound asked for Danish or foreign butter. This arrival of cheap Imperial food means a. direct saving, therefore, of 5d to 6d a pound, an important consideration to heads of families and large consumers. Butter merchants in Tooley street, Landon’s butter centre, ■speak of the new season’s arrivals as the finest quality over sent 'to the United Kingdom by the Dominion. It is, therefore, not surprising that the popularity of the Imperial commodity should be on the increase here. In 1913 the Dominion sent us 12,000 tons, in 1921 35,000 tons, and this, season the amount will exceed 40,000 tons. If New Zealand’s butter exports continue to increase' at this ratio •she may soon ’-became our principal source of butter supply to the exclusion of the foreigner. —Popular Produce. — This home preference for New Zealand’s produce is proving very gratifying to the people of the Dominion, as Sir James Allen, the High Commissioner for New Zealand, states in the following interview :• — “That New Zealand butter is meeting with increasing favor in the United Kingdom,” said Sir James 1 , “is evidenced by the comparative ease with which the last of the Government stocks were disposed of, and the eagerness with which the new season’s arrivals are being taken vp by the consumer. This is a very gratifying thing to the people of the Dominion, more especially seeing that during recent years a. great number of ex-Service men have taken up dairy farming; they feel a natural' pride in the fact that the Motherland is consuming their produce in preference to that of the foreigner. “Perhaps the principal reason for the increased popularity of New Zealand butter here is the realisation that it is of absolute purity and of the highest quality. The Dominion product is as fine as could be produced, and this is because the butter is made amid ideal surroundings' from the produce of high-grade cows, fed on the finest pastures. ■—How it is Done. — “New Zealand possesses unrivalled natural advantages as a dairying country, and the manufacture of butter is carried on on sound, hygienic, and scientific lines. The farms are subject to a splendid system of Government supervision, the creameries cow, Scottish Lass of Glen Brae. tn 1920, without any concentrates, this where the butter is made are up-to-date, and at every stage of the business the officers of the State are in sympathetic contact with the producer and the factory management—and not so much in the capacity of inspectore as of experienced friends who are prepared to take the utmost trouble to secure good results. The grading system. for the finished product, is a model for the rest of the world, and not a single box of New Zealand butter is allowed to be exported without having been graded' carefully by Government experts.

“From all points of view, therefore, it must surely be better for the people of the United Kingdom to purchase the produce of the Empire in preference to that of foreign countries, and I am glad to note that consumers in the United Kingdom now’ realise the value of New Zealand butter ais a ‘perfect food product!’ ”