THE DULLNESS IN HEMP.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 732, 3 February 1910, Page 8

THE DULLNESS IN HEMP.

• VERY WEAK DEMAND. Very little now business is being done locally in hemp, at present, and most of. tho shipments now going forward are in execution of October and. contracts. A small amount of speculative shipping, is however, being done. Tho British, market became decidedly, quiet ■with the approach of tho holiday season in December, and has remained so up tn date, business being practically at a standstill. The continued inactivity, is alleged to he due to the disturbance of .business -'consequent on the general. election ;noiv. takinx: ;ylace .at IlomCj but;

there is it feeling locally that it is largely tho result of .il speculative move oil the other side to force down prices. Holders, however, are firm at present. Tho Australian market .has naturally been adversely 1 affected :by the extra 25 per cent, charged by the Union Company on Australian freights during ' the continuance of the coal strike: Manila heiup has been going into the Commonwealth steadily all the time for binder twine, and the harvest, unfortunately,, promises to bo completely over before the freight charges fron\ New Zealand return to tho normal, and the handicap is takea off local producers,'.".

A Wellington house largely interested in the homi) trado estimates; that the total production of the Dominion for the twelve months ending June 30 next will run at between 20,000 and 23,000 tons. Tho exports to tho United Kingdom, to. tho. - United States Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, • and to : Canada—practically the whole, of'the export trade, excluding what goes to Australia—aro estimated by the same-. authority to bo . likely to amount to' 15,000 or 16,000 tons for the year ending December 31 next. . Tho figures for the last two calendar years 10,000 tons;>l9oß, 15,000 tons.