A-'FW SOUTH WALES. 



Tlic purcliasing power lias at all times kept steadily abreast of the 

 growtli of the local wool mai'kets, to which large numbers of buyers 

 flock from all points of the compass with the approach of each wool 

 season. Many manufacturers now find it to their advantage to be 

 permanently represented in Sydney^ where^ in consequence of the 

 increasing support accorded to the market by Queensland growers, 

 who shear early, a large business in wool is regularly transacted all 

 the year round. Undoubtedly the most prominent feature in connection 

 with the Sydney wool sales is the ever-increasing* direct trade done 

 with Continental users of the staple ; and the wonderful development 

 of industrial enterprise on the Continent of Europe is, probably, largely 

 due to the foresight exercised by those by whom it is directed in being- 

 so well represented at all the great producing centres of Australasia 

 and South America. In Yorkshire less disposition to move out of old 

 grooves has been shown, partly because the coarser varieties of wool, 

 more peculiarly adapted to the Yorkshire trade, have not hitherto been 

 largely grown here, and partly because English manufacturers, through 

 their close proximity to London, derive some advantages over their 

 foreign rivals. With the industrial centres of the United Kingdom a 

 large direct trade is, however, done every year, and this will, doubtless^ 

 expand more rapic ]y in the future than it has done in the past, owing 

 to the cheapening in transit charges brought about by the building of 

 the Manchester Ship Canal. Tariff tinkering in the United States 

 has hitherto formed an insuperable hindrance to the development, on 

 anything like a satisfactory scale, of reciprocal international trade 

 between Australia and America ; and the quantity of wool purchased 

 in Sydney for the latter quarter fluctuates year by year, but, on the 

 whole, remains comparatively small, notwithstanding the efforts 

 repeatedly put forth by American iisers of the staple to obtain a firm 

 footing in the colonial wool market. The most seinous interference to 

 the progress of the American manufacturer of woollens and worsteds 

 has come from his cramped and uncertain position, which renders him 

 utterly unable to compete successfully in the long run with his rivals 

 in other countries who steadily enjoy free access to the world's sources 

 of supply of raw material, and are thus enabled to turn out the soft 

 and supple goods demanded by modern civilization at reasonable rates. 

 Fortunately for growers of wool in Australia no class of manufacturers 

 of such textile fabrics as owe their primary origin to the animal king- 

 dom can afford to even partially close their doors to the productions 

 of this Continent, as without them it is impossible to obtain the best 

 results, whether it be in the manufacture of articles either of utility 

 or ornament. Few creatures are there of greater variety than the 

 genus sheep, and few are so widely scattered over the different parts 

 of the globe. Coming originally, as there is reason to believe it came, 

 from the mountain fastnesses of V\"estern Asia the sheep has spread 

 throughout the world developing distinctive features in different places, 

 and these local variations, engendered by culture, feed, climatic, and 

 other causes, have become permanent characteristics. The require- 

 ments of the present age necessitate the unencumbered use of the fine- 

 haired descriptions of vv^ool grown so largely and successfully in Aus- 

 tralia. In this wool the individual fibre embraces not only unequalled 

 softness, elasticity, brilliancy, and pliability, but possesses lorications 



