COMMIERCIAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1101, 16 November 1883, Page 2

COMMIERCIAL.

Ashburton Guardian Office, ' 1- Friday afternoen. K Messrs Matson, Cox and Co. held their usual.weekly sale of cattle, sheep, pigs, etc., at the Ashburton yards on Tuesday, November 13th. The weather was very wet, and owing, to the Agricultural Show being held on the’ ground, many farmers anticipated tha sale would be: postponed to make room for the en-tries-coming in, but notwithstanding these drawbacks, we disposed of almost all of the stockentered with us. The Winchmore sheep camcforward in the usual prime condition, and topped the market. In cattle, there was a v«y poor entry and the bidding slack. The following were the prices realised; —Fat crossbred woolly sheep, ißs; do do shorn, 14s; do do 'merino wethers, 9s gd; do do shorn hoggets, Qs 6d; store crossbred hoggets, 11s 6d; do do hoggets, ns lid; merino ewes and lambs, ios 6d; do do 1053 d and ns6d. -rrCatUe : Fat heifers, 1425, L 4 17s 6d, L 3 Ips; fat steqrs, L 6; springers, L 4 2s 6d to L 7. '' Messrs Miles and Co. report upon the live sock market for the week ending Thursday, November 15, as follows Addington—Contrary to the expectation that the fact of there haying been no market last week would be an inducement to owners to send forward fat stock in’ quantity, the numbers yarded were but limited, the quality being about the average. Notwithstanding the very small entry, prices aS H rule were'much- about recent rates. There was a very small attendance of the trade, and biddings, although somewhat brisker than of late, were' decidedly erratic, the best prices obtained' being for -Such stock as were submitted about, the middle of ,the sale. The totate; yarqed’/or the day were 5,562 sheep, 413 qattle, 62 pigs, of which pur entries were on account of Messrs Chapman Bros, M. Studholme, Charles Withell, Walter Rutherford, P. C. Threlkeld, D. McGregor, Peter Grant, \V. - Clarkson. J. Haydon, C. Ensor, T. Robmsop,J. Lunn, J. Illingsworth and others. Our principal sales in fat crossbred sheep, on account qf Mr Studholme, were a splendid line of lat wethers at 17s to 18s ; account of C. Withell, wethers at 16s gd, 17s, 17s 6d to 18s 6d ; account Walter Rutherford, wethers at 20s; account P. C. Threlkeld, 16s gd; account W, B. Clarkson, wethers at 20s and merinos at 15s 6d to 16s; account Chapman Bros, 80 merino wethers at 15s 3d, crossbred ewes, shorn, at 15s. We quote shorn mutton at from 2’4d to 2#d, do in the wool from 3d to 3j£d per lb. Store sheep :’An average quantity yarded, prices much about recent quotations. ! Fat lambs : A fair entry of the usual quality, prices realised being from 7 s to 12s. Fat- cattle ; A fair entry. We quote beef at from 22s 6d to 25s per loolbs, according to quality.—Storecattle ; A fair entry. We see no alteration in values to quote.—Pigs : A moderate entry. Prices realised were fully equal to rccqnt rates.—On Saturday last we held a sale of pure bred stud rams, on account ol various clients, the whole of them being locklly bred and of a high-cl ass character. The attendance was large and the competition for the various lots exceedingly brisk, and we venture to say that the sale as a whole was the most, successful one of its kind which has ever been held- in! New Zealand. The first consignment submitted to auction, was rams bred by Hon R. Campbell, Otekaike, the progeny of “ Golden Fleece,” a ram imported from Mr James Gibson’s flock at Bellevue, Tasmania. Mr Campbell for many years has been one of the largest and most successful exhibitors of mtriffo sheep at Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru and Dunedin, and the fact that selections from his stud flocks were to be placed before the public, drew a large audience, and appreciative.

Th« following is the Christchurch Com Exchange report for the week ending Friday evening, 'the ifith histA slightly increased activity hasbeen experienced in the grain market during the past week, “though still not on a very extensive scale.” For sound milling wheat there has been an improved demand, a fcwrparcels: having changed hands at current rates. In oats there is not much doing, holders being firm in refusing to entertain any price under their limits. Owing to the lateness of the season there is some difficulty in obtaining goodi sound potatoes consequently a slight advance in. price is being offered. —Wheat: Sound milling, 3s pd to 4s per bushel, delivered at Christchurch ; second quality, 3s 3d to 3s fid; chick wheat, is lod to 2s 3d per busheh-r-Oats : Prime milling, 2s id to 2s 2d per bushel, f.0.b.; bright short feed, is nd to 2s; inferior and discolored, is 8d to is lod per busheh— Barley : First-class malting, 4s to 45.3 d per bushel; second quality, 3s fid to 3s 8d j feed, is lid to 2s 2d per bushel.—Grass Seed ; Unaltered since previous quotations.— Potatoes27s fid to 30s at country stations. — Cheese and Butter ; to $d for the former, and fid to ?d for the latter. Kegs extra.

vj, > Tlis London Markets. The New Zealand Grain Agency and Mercantile, Company, Limited, report of the London Markets, under date October 4, as follows Grain Market—Wheat: Heavy rains ha*ve delayed the harvest in the north, and some quantity of com being still in the fields in that part of the kingdom has sustained damage.- But the question of our own crop has been completely lost sight of in the large and ahbirfe) important matter of the continuously heavy supplies of foreign. The arrivals of wheat and flour from abroad into London idboerdurihgl'the'past 19’,weeks have reached the enormous quantity of 2,082,727 qrs., this is sufficient of itself to account for the downward tendency of our market. Australian wheat has declined is to is fid, New Zealand short berried fis to 2s. and Tuscans about is per qr., but the trade has been slow even at these reduced rates, for millers still possessing ,sqme';quaptity of stock and being now well ■ supplied with home-grown wheat, abstain from purchasing except for immediate requirements, • the impression amongst them being that prices f ‘ are not even yet at their lowest. We give par- ’ ticulars of the arrivals in London and also those at the coast ports. Four cargoes of Australian have been disposed of, three going to Dublin, the price of one being reported as 4Ss fid. Five cargoes of New Zealand have been sold ranging from 41s fid U.K. price for the Conti- ’ dent for a specially graded cargo all one quality to 39s fid and 40s U.K. ports. The c.i.f. trade is very dull at present. Flour—The value has declined fid to is per sack since our

latt.” ; Barley—We have had no supplies from the colonies. Oats—Some parcels have come „ to hand from New ,Zealand mostly out of con- " ditlon. Fide' heavy quality in good order is worth 325,; but rpugh and discolored lots are difficult of sale at many shillings less money. Quotations are as follows :■ —Australian wheat, 46s to 47s per 49t>lbs ; do flour, 32s to 35s p r aSolbs; New Zealand wheat, Tuscan, 40s to 46s pet 4960)5} do wheat, short berried, 32s to 43s per 4961b?} do flour, 24s 1029 s per atolbs; do oats, 26s to 32s per 3841b5. Wool i|‘ The third series of Colonial Wool .Sales for this, year, which opened on the 21st August, closed yesterday. From the returns tno various selling brokers, it appears that,

including bought-in wools, about 57,000 bales are held over in first hands, 10,000 bales of which are Cape and Natals. The series has occupied 38 selling days, the quantity catalogued per diem averaging about 10,500 bales, or the same as in the June sales. The attendance of buyers throughout has been a fairly good one, but at no time have the biddings been very spirited. At the commencement the French bought very sparingly, but towards the end their|purchases increased, and the foreign buyers are bstimated to have taken about 175.000 bales or half the quantity actually sold. From the opening it was evident that rates for all classes of wool would rule rather lower, and directly prices were established it was seen that Australian and New Zealand wools were from X'z to id lower than last sales, and for some descriptions, such as New South Wales and Queensland fleece washed and faulty scoureds, a reduction of 1 j£d per lb had often to be submitted to in order to effect sales. Crossbred wools opened j£d 10 id per lb lower than last sales, but during the latter part of the series they showed rather a hardening tendency. The fourth series of sales are fixed to commence on the 20th November, and will include, ,we understand, a good assortment of the new clip, which we hope will bring together a large attendance of foreign buyers. Annexed is a list of arrivals up to date for the fourth series New South Wales and Queensland, 12,566 bales; Victoria, 4,554 bales ; Tasmania, 542 bales; South Australia, 1,130 bales ; Western Australia, nil; New Zealand, 5,197 bales; Cape, Eastern District, 9,889 bales ; Cape, Western District, 638 bales ; Natal, 2,106 bales; —total, 36,622 bales. — Tallow : The market since our last report has been firm, and Australian has continued in good demand, the sales amounting to about 6.000 casks. Prices have been irregular and fluctuating, but on the average show little or no change, the value at present of good to very fine mutton being 41s 6d to 42s gd, and fair to fine beef tallow, 39s 6d to 41s 3d per cwt. Low hard export descriptions have been in great request at very full prices, but soft sorts are not wanted, and wet qualities are at the moment unsaleable. The imports during the month have been 7,299 casks, and the stock in first hands amounts to about 10,850 casks.— Frozen meat : The remainder of the meat per the s.s. lonic turned out equally as well as the first portions, and the same high prices were obtained up to the last, viz, to yd per lb. The arrivals since our last report have been the Opawa, bringing about 6,500 carcases, and the Mataura, with about 7,000. Some few of the sheep per the first named vessel turned out in very inferior condition, but the bulk, however, were delivered in tolerably good order, and the average price of the whole shipment was about 6d to d per lb. We have worse, however, to report of the Mataura, about half of the 7,000 carcases per this vessel having unfortunately proved to be bad and unfit for human food, and the whole shipment is more or less affected, the price obtained consequently being very poor. It appears that the sheep per the Mataura were slaughtered on_ shore, dressed, and taken on board, then put into the freezing room, and after being frozen stowed away, the kidneys not being removed. Over a month having been occupied in taking on board the large quantity shipped, and the chamber in the lower hold having been made much larger than on the previous voyage, it is quite likely that the machinery may have been ‘unequal to the double operation of properly freezing the sheep when put on board and Keeping those loaded in a proper frozen condition. During loading it seems that on more than one occasion several valves had to be repaired, and while these were being put in order it is said that the temperature rose above freezing point, —Money: On the 13th ultimo the bank rate was lowered from 4 per cent to 3 yi per cent., and was further reduced on the 27th ultimo to 3 per cent., at which rate it at present stands.