STOCK AND STATIONS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 192, 21 May 1878, Page 2

STOCK AND STATIONS.

: In consequence of the long continuance of dry weather and the bare state of the pasture, all branches of the stock business continue in a very languid state. The certainty of a scarcity of grass and other feed during the winter prevents the pos eibility of moving store stock, while for the same reason much fat stock is thrown into the market, which in a better season would be kept on for several months longer.

The demand for good land seems to increase rather than diminish, and prices have risen to a point far beyond what anyone could have thought of twelve months ago. The sale of the Sherwood Estate, in Timaru District, affords a good instance of this, as it realised £14 per acre at auction, having been sold privately a short time before for £9, thus giving a profit on the 600 acres of about £30,000.

At Addington on Wednesday there was a poor attendance, and biddings at", the opening of the sale were extremely dull. They however improved a little as the sale wore on. The number of sheep yarded was 6276, which sold at about l£d per lb, for melting and for butchers' mutton at l£d to 2d. 274 cattle were penned, with a full supply of beef, for -which there was a dull trade, at for best quality 25s to 27s 6d per 100 lbs, and 21s 6d to 22s per 100 lbs for inferior.

The bulk of the store cattle were passed in unsold, and any sales made were effected at nominal prices.

Messrs H. Matson and Co. report on the live stock market, &c, for the week ending Thursday, May 16, as follows:—Canterbury Live Stock Market—Yesterday's sale at the Addington Yards was in point of numbers a small one for this season of the year, 274 head of cattle, 6276 sheep, and 21 pigs only being sent to hand for the coming's week's supplies. The sheep entry for the most part was made up of prime cross bred mutton and merino boilers, and the various establishments for boiling-down in the neighbourhood being now in full swing, no difficulty was experienced in placing the different lines of sheep of the latter class on offer at fair and mark table values ; cross-bred mutton of prime quality sold well at slightly ad vanced prices, and although the demand for medium quality was not quite so keen, yet the whole of our entry was quitted at rates fully up to late quotations. The cattle market presented a full supply of beef, with comparatively few stores, yet fully as many as were wanted just now until the surplus of late markets have been placed; but in beef the large quantity on offer very little effected the market, and for prime quality, which a considerable proportion of the amouut to hand comprised, prices realised were fully up to, if not in advance of previous markets, noticeably a pen of remarkably heavy weights from the Ashburton, which made as high as £15 10s per head. Store cattle sold slightly better, and we look upon the day's sale as a success, succeeding, as we did, in placing every lino of sheep and the bulk of the cattle submitted by us at satisfactory prices, as under. Our entry for the day comprised 224 head of cattle, 3608 sheep, and 21 pigs. In Cattle the principal sales were—Fat: 5 at from £13 5s to £15 10s, 9 at £9, 4 at £9 2s 6d to £9 10s, 3 at £9 7s 6d, 5 at £8 10s, 4 at £8, 2 at £10 10s, 3 at £8 15s 4 at £8 2s 6d, 4 at £7 15s, &c. Stores : 20 at £6 18s, 5 at £7 2s 6d, 4 at £7 10s, 5 at £5 2s 6d, 4 at £7 ss, 5 at £3 17s 6d, 6 at £4 2s 6d, 7at£s 2s 6d, &c. Springers : An increasing supply, for which the demand and high prices still remain unchanged. In Sheep, we sold 150 crossbred wethers at. lis 3d, 64 at 10s 6d, 145 at 10s 9d, 170 at lis 3d, 32 at 9s, 50 shorn lambs at ss, 130 light-weights of nice quality at 9s 3d, 270 cross-bred wethers at 9s 9d, 100 merino stores at 5s 3d, 94 merino wethers at 6s 6d, 71 cross-bred wethers at lis 3d, 153 mixed cross-breds at 8s 6d, 155 do at 7s 9d, 126 at 7s 6d, 140 at 8s 6d to 9s, 31 at 6s 6d 300 merino ewes from 5s 6d, 5s 9d, to 6s, 237 cull merinos at ls 6d; lambs from ss, for very lately shorn, to 7s 6d ; pigs from 7s 6d to lis. Wool, Sheepskins, Hides, and Tallow. At the usual weekty sale held this day at our Canterbury wool stores, we catalogued a large entry —3292 sheepskins, 92 bags of butchers' rough fat, various casks and packages of tallow, and 89 ox hides being submitted for the day's auction. There was a large attendance of buyers, and competition was extremely brisk throughout the sale, a clearance of every line of skins at high prices being the result.' The enquiry for butchers' rough fat at present does not seem so keen, and although all our lines were placed, yet it was at slightly eauier prices, but this we look upon as only temporary, and which next week's market may again set right. Best butchers' crossbreds made, in large lives, 4s, 4s 6d, 4s Bd, ss, to 5s 3d ; medium woolled do 3s, 3s 4d, to 3s 9d; best merinos 3s 9d, 3s, S.s 4d, to 3s 7d ; inferior and country skins 2s, 2s 4d, to 3s 3d ; pelts, very lately shorn, 9d to ls 8d each. Hides, salted, 4|d ; green, 3W ; calf skins passed in at s£d. Rough fat, best dry, well saved, 2fd, to 2|d ; medium do, lfd to 2£d ; inferior and heated, id to l£d ; wool, to lOd per lb.