H—29

The Timaru sales have been very good. Merinos have opened up very attractively, though some of the wool was inclined to be dusty. Crossbreds were sound and free from seed, but dusty. Dunedin had a fairly good season and the clip opened up well at most sales. The only noticeable feature about the Merino wool was that it was heavy in condition. Crossbreds, on the other hand, were light in condition and mainly a little tender. Invercargill wools have been extremely poor this season because of a hard winter and dry spring, with the result that the wool was poorly grown, light in condition, ■cotty, mushy, and discoloured. North Island: Wool brought in for the early sales at Auckland showed a distinct improvement on that of the previous year. The shorn hogget wool was well grown and quite attractive. The main clip was light in condition, but showed good style, no doubt because of unbroken good weather allowing earlier shearing. A pleasing factor was the undoubted effort by growers to prepare their clips for market in a better fashion than hitherto. At later sales the standard of wool deteriorated, however, and discoloration, cotts, and stained wools have been noticeable. Napier wools have shown the effects of the very dry spring and summer, and after the December sale, which showed the wool to be well grown, bright, and reasonably sound, faults began to creep in, seed and burr being the rule rather than the exception, and dusty wool also becoming bad. Grisborne wools showed the same faults caused by similar weather. The clip in Wanganui has not improved much on that of last year. The wool still has a lot of seed, and water stain, discoloration, and cotts were also present. There has been a marked improvement in the skirting and classing of Wanganui wools, but preparation of Taranaki wools is poor. The Wellington clip, for the most part, has been well grown, of good colour, light in condition, but a little tender in the latter part of the season. Nelson and Blenheim wools sold at Wellington have been shabby and poor for the most part.

Rabbit Nuisance The past year was marked by .the passing of a comprehensive amendment to the Rabbit Nuisance Act, 1928. This amending legislation improves the financial position of Rabbit Boards and establishes a Rabbit Destruction Council. The functions of the Council cover a wide range of activities, and in the future it will play an important part in fostering the constitution of additional rabbit districts and generally devising ways of combating the rabbit menace. The amending Act also provides for the imposition of a levy on rabbit-skins produced and sold in New Zealand. Levy money so collected will be applied to defraying the expenses of the Council and to payment of grants to Boards. When this levy becomes operative, that previously applied by the Rabbit-skins Committee, Dunedin, will cease.

58

Season. Number of Bales sold. Net Weight. Gross Value. Average per Bale. Average per Pound. lb. £ £ s. d. d. 1942-43 950,607 327,321,380 19,916,828 20 19 0 14-60 1943-44 930,694 316,152,540 19,424,253 20 17 5 14-74 1944-45 1,038,019 357,606,520 22,013,258 21 4 1 14-77 1945-46 1,022,124 349,365,289 21,552,153 21 1 9 14-80 1946-47 934,730 308,347,839 23,136,014 24 15 0 18-00