COMMERCIAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 143, 6 April 1877, Page 3

COMMERCIAL.

San Francisco, March r 3. .,. , Flour (superfine), fidoL to sdol. 50c ; extra., 6dol. t(r,6dol 50c. : dried apples, jadol. 7c. ; Dovyuer's -kerosene, 52£0. per, gallon ; De'voe's plain cans, 44c; faucet, 4§c. ; nonpareil, 50c. ; photolite, 39c. ; oleophine, 4ic. London, February 10. At the annual meeting of the. Loan and Mercantile Agency on February 2nd, a dividend of 10 per cent, with 5 per cent, bonus ; was declared. New Zealand hemp, good clean dressed, L 2-5; fair, L 22 to L.23 ; common, Ll9 to L2l. New Zealand Consolidated Fjves, 103^ to 104|. Wool Market. — The course of trade during the past month developed ! iri some features weakness in both Home 1 and Continental centres, notably in the 1 later public corapetions at Havre, Antwerp, and Liverpool, and die decline of quotations established affords nnmistakeable testimony of a more or less general check to consumption in t c chief industrial districts. The decided improvement in the value of the staple which marked the. closing months of 1876 went -somewhat ahead of any corresponding rate of consumption, and, under the circumstances, some irregularity in prices at approaching- sales may be exhibited. In the domestic wool trade the tendency is still .in. a downward direction. . The movement does not appear. as y&t to have reached a limit. We think with a slight increased activity in business a' marked impi'ovement for the better would be easily produced. The cheek to consumption is no doubt occasioned by dullness and the unsettled feeling which still obtainsin consequence of the failure of the Powers to • settle the Turkish question upon a satisfactory basis. There arc -but few enquiries in this market for parcels oF Colonial growth, and they have not resulted in any transaction of moment, and the prices paid offer no real test as to what values are likely to rule when material is subjected to public competition — buyers, in view of approaching sales, being inclined to hold aloof. Such wool ot the new clip as comes under notice appears in many instances, as far as greasy p Tjels are concerned, to be in light condition, but somewhat open -in character, generally rather deficient in strength of staple. Arrivals to date, New South Wales and Queensland, 30,175 bales; Victoria, 121,962 bales; South Australia, 38,939; Western Australia^ nil : Tasmania, 576 ; New .Zealand, 2213;' Cape of Good Hope, 38,578,; .total, 232,488 bales. The market is quiet, with a tendency to lower values.