CURRENT TOPICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20095, 26 November 1930, Page 16

CURRENT TOPICS.

VICTORIAN MEAT PRICES. Fat sheep and lambs at. the Melbourne stock market are selling at low levels, the entry of exporters having made little difference to the values. A. fortnight ago the best wethers were ma Icing from 16s lid to 17s 6d, with a big proportion from 13s 6d to los. One extra prime line of Suffolk cross lambs sold at 23s (3d, but other prime weighty crossbreds made from 17s to 19s, ami medium from los to 16s. The approximate average price per lb, exclusive of skin and offal were: Prime handy and medium weight lambs, 4£d to 4:! d; odd extra choice light (scarce), to -"id; good to prime medium to weighty, 4d to 4-Jd; prime and extra prime heavies, to 4d; useful to good, fleshy grades, 3d to 4d, according to substance and freshness; useful fleshy shorn, to 3d; plain meaty and rough sorts lower. For adult sheep approximate average prices were: Prime handy and medium weight s' oun S wethers, to 3 -i; choice 2-tooths, shade better; prime weighty to heavy wethers 2}d to 2Jd, according to age and quality; useful to good fleshy grades, 2d to 2-£ d; prime quality handy weight ewes, to 3d; well fleshed and fat weighty aged, lid to 2|d; plain ineaty aged, lower.

THE OATS CROP. Though tlio heavy rains over the week-end would do incalculable good to oat crops there is a prospect ot' the earlier yields being on the low side. Autumn-sown oats were fed down so closely that they made practicaly no progress in the dry weather prevailing during the spring. A considerable area of Algerians is now well in the shot blade, and is too far advanced to benefit to the full by the rains, although the latter will rescue them from absolute failure. There is a much larger area in oats for next season, according to the official statistics, but reports from Southland, where most of "the white oats are grown, are to the effect that the spring has been so broken that the sowing has been much reduced. It is possible that the intended area was included in the returns supplied by farmers, in which ease the actual increase will be less than officially forecasted. Spring sown oats in Canterbury would*be vastly benefited by the rain of the week-end, and with normal weather they should be up to the standard. AUSTRALIAN WHEATGROWERS. With some flourish of trumpets a Wheat Conference was held at Canberra, the Australian capital, the other j day, ostensibly for the purpose of helpI ing wheatgrowera out of the desperate position they aTe in. However, the unfortunate growers came looking for bread and returned with a stone. Various politicians had advised them to increase their wheat areas, which they did, and thereby intensified the trouble. The conference proved nothing more nor less than a medium for Ministerial expressions of regret at the position that had arisen. Both