AUCTIONEERS' REPORTS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 625, 11 July 1882, Page 2

AUCTIONEERS' REPORTS.

Mr A. I. McGregor roports that he held hie usual monthly sale of cattle and horses at his new yards, Head of the Bay, on Friday last. Numerically, there was the largest entry of the season, but the disposition to purchase was far from keen, the quality of many of the lots not being first cl .83. The apathy in buying is to a great extent, no doubt, caused by the fact thtt as yet we have had no winter, and buyers fear to stock with cattle in low condition in face of the fact that although grass ia still good for the season of the year, eevere weather must yet be naturally expected. Notwithstanding the extremely high prices ruling for all sorts of dairy produco, and the low stocks in the market, which will result in produce opening high at the coniniencemcMit of next season, dairy cows were vory difficult to quit at anything like decent prices. This, no doubt, to a large extent arises from the idea that many purchasers have, that only the weeding out of dairy herds are sent to the y -rds for sale. But the auctioneer can positively assert that many of the entries are faultlees, of their kind, and are put under the hammer for many reasons, such as shortness of feed and cash, and other reasons that must be within the knowledge of every rnrmer. The following is some of the business doi.e:~A lot of ten yearlings and sixcalvesweredisposedof at43s on the average; two bullocks, at £6 each ; lines of calves as follows, viz., three at 255, nine at 30s, and eleven at 16s; steers and heifers (two years old), from £5" 10s to £4 10s each ; cwo fat steers. £5 ; six heifers, in good order, not in calf, £3 12s to £4 12s each ; dairy cows, to calve in August and September, £3 l(to to £4 12s each; and one winter cow, in profit, £6 ; poßr and old cows, from £2 10a to £1 10s each.

A number of horses (hacks) were afterwards offered, but only one found a pur-chas-er, a good staunch pony, at £9 10s. At the above sale a cottage and half acre section, belonging to Mrs Webb, situated on the Beach road, Head of the Bay, was noli! to Mr Peter Shadbolt for £56, cash. The auctioneer has to apologise for the imperfect order in which the yards were at last sale, owing to the time being too short to enable sufficient dividing pens to be erected, bat can assure his clients that this will be remedied before next sale, and also that pens will be specially prepared for sheep and pign. In produce the demand still continues active. Holders of cheese are unwilling to submit to any fall in price, and demand Bd. The price for bacon ranges from to 7d, according to quality. Holders of rye grass can now part with this to advantage, a fresh demand having arisen for this product.

Messrs 11. Matson nnd Co. report on the Live Stock Market, &c for the week ending Thursday, July 6th, 1882, as follows :—At yesterday's Addington Market a large entry of sheep again came to hand, three-fourths of which were fat. At theopening of the Bale the attendance of buyers was limited, several of the first lines offered being withdrawn, and generally throughout the auction a marked indifference as to purchasing was shown by the trade, reeulting in a decline of 6d to Is per head in values on most of the cheep sold. It is a note-worthy fact in connection with the Addington sales, that in a gutted market medium class mutton suffers in price to double and treble the extent that prime quality does. This was notably the case on Wednesday, as in the disposal of some of the beat lines of fat sheep, late rates were fully maintained, whilst in others there was a drop of 6d to Is under last week's rates, and double that amount under prices as ruling a month sinca. hi butchers' crossbreds we placed the bulk of our entry at from 13a 6d to 16s 3d. Messrs Clarkson, R. W right, ti. D, Gardiner, Henderson and Mcßeath, Blackmore, E. G. Wright, Saville and Harris being the chief contributors. At the close of the day we had only two small nes of sheep unsold, upwards of 1530 of what wer? entered with us as fat sheep, being sold to graziers to hold over for nest season's clip. In fat cattle Iheie was just an average supply, the qualify varying for a few pens of eood beef to a very large amount of inferior and second rate cattle. Trade waa dull, and prices shew no improvement; in fact for light weight beef we consider values were even lower than last week. We, however, succeeded in quitting most of our lines, at prices in accordance with the above quotation, the best steers going up to £8 and £8 10s; heifers, etc., £4 10s to £6 10s. The slight " move" recorded a fortnight since in the store cattle trade has had the effect of increasing the market supplies a little too early, and there is now a reaction, with very little doing. Before any permanent improvement in values can take place, we must be somewhat nearer the opening of spring than at present, and have a prospect of feed wherewith to hold stock on. Tho totals yarded for Wednesday's sale comprised 6122 sheep, 492 head of cattle, and 128 pigs.

Messrs Robert Wilkin und Co. report :— On Thursday, in our New Zealand Wool Stores, we held the usual weekly sale of sheepskins. There was a numerous attendance of buyers, and we catalogued 1724 skins, which were all sold. Although the lots that we offered comprised some good descriptions of skins, yet there was a considerable depression in the competition, resulting in a drop of at least 9d, compared with the averages of late sales, with a downward tendency. Butchers' crossbred, large. 5s 6d.5s lid, 6s 4d ;do do, second quality, 3s 51. 4s Id, 4s 9d, 5s Gd ; do merino, large, 4s sd, 4s lid, 5s 6d ; Ho do, second quality, 2s Lid, 3s 6d, 4s, 4s sd; country crossbred, large, 4a 6d, ss, 5s 6d ; do do, medium, 2s, 2s 10d, 3s Bd, 4s 6d ; do do, small, Is 4d, Is Bd, 2s ; do merino, lnrge, 4s 6d, 5s Id, 5s 6d; do do, medium, 2s, 2s lid, 3s sd, 4s 6d; do do, small. Is 4tl, Is 7d, 2s. A consignment of goats'skins frum Kaikoura, in a damaged condition, realised Is each, and a lot of 1100 pelts were disposed of at 4s GA perdoz fat and tallow—The trade was well represented and the competition was keen ; 85 packages were catalogued and all disposed of. We note an advance of Jof a penny per ih on fat. Fat, best quality, clean an<l w-II saved, to 2fd per lo ; second quality, fom 2d to 2|d per ll>, Nothing was soi<l under that price. Tallow, in Rmall lots, from 10s per cwt for medium quality, to 20s per cwt for good samples.