The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1910. WHERE TO SELL WOOL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2712, 18 January 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1910. WHERE TO SELL WOOL.

'Whether to sell the wool clip in New Zealand or in London is a problem that has for years confronted our farmers, and as the seasons pass along they appear to be more and more convinced cf the advantages of local sales. 111 this connection New Zealand is having the same experience as the pastoralists of Australia, who now dispose of tlie bulk of their clips at Commonwealth sales. In building up the system of local selling, those who favor it have naturally had to fight strong opposition from vested and varied interests in London that are concerned in concentrating all business in the great metropolis, but the logic of the facts lias been so strong as to steadily beat down opposition. Quite recently a controversy on this subject took place in the columns of tOie New Zealand “Times,” and figures were quoted to show that the return per bale was better for the London than for the local auctions. Our "Wellington contemporary thereupon obtained opinions from a number of woolbuycrs who frequent the sales which take place in the' Dominion. Mr. Walter Hill, lion, secretary of the Wool Buyers 7 Association, is as well able to speak authoritatively on this subject as anyone, and he crystallised the position from the buyers’ view-point into the following sentence: “We come here in order to be able to bliy wool on the day on which we are selling it.” They did not visit colonial markets, he continued, expecting to buy cheaper or expecting to pay snore money for the wool. There was, in fact, just as much competition on the New Zealand market as on any other, and the colonial market was quite equal, from the seller’s standpoint, London or any other market for the class of wool. Consequently, whatever the price, it was the highest on the day. “If we buy here on the spot,” said Mr. Hill, “we can contract for months ahead and regulate our shipments accordingly, thus saving all store charges which are incurred by the seller in London. This is very much better business and decidedly more economical than waiting till the last moment and having to buy in London. There is a distinct saving between buying in New Zealand and buying in England of §d per pound. The wool costs, if sold through London, Id per pound and the expense to Bradford of -jjd a ipouud. The expense from New Zealand to Bradford direct, however, is ti hare penny. Who gets the. benefit of the -gd, apart altogether from the fact of New Zealand being a better market?” Speaking cf the comparison made between the average price of bales sold in London and in Australasia, Mr. Hill s a *s that though the only- practical way was to quote pen bale, it was misleading if it was,

not stated what the hales included. There was a higher percentage of .pieces .and bellies in New Zealand sales than in those of London,- and there was-here a larger .proportion of inferior wools sold. These facts naturally brought down the New- Zealand average. Figures, remarked Mr. Hill, could be made to say anything. It was decidedly untrue, be declared, that there was a better price returned the grower in London. If a clip were divided up for a period of five years, half being sent to London and half sold in New Zealand, the local market, declares Mr. Hill, would show the best results; of that he is certain. This opinion should be of considerable value to our pastoralists, for it is only a question of time when sales in Gisborne will compete in a definite way with the present system, whereby the hulk of the Poverty Bay wool is shipped direct to London and sold there.