COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1011, 29 December 1910, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS.

Customs revenue collected at the port ol Wellington yesterday amounted to £471 l<s. Bd. ' ,

COTTON CHOP FORECAST. ■ \ • More,than, usual interest attach?* to the final estimate of this 1 season's' American cotton crop issued by Neill BroS;,* owing to the shortage of last year's crop and the consequent depletion of stocks in the hands of spinners, ; ilessrs. I\ T eili Bros.'s .estimate is generally, regarded as the most-reliable forecast of the trade position, and it is disappointing to find that they are unable to put the figure for 1910-11 at more than 11,600,C00 bales. 'Last year's crop totalled no more than; 10,584,000 but it followed upon an exceptionally heavy crop of 13,800,COO'bales in 19U8-9, so that the'season commenced with very considerable stocks in hand. The reverse is the case thi3 year, so tkat.it'jecwr' probable that .the actual supplies available will onlv be some 350,000 bales larger than- for 1909-10, when the Quantity was only just sufficient, notwithstanding the fact that the mills were working short time for many months on end. At the commencement of the season, owing to the larger acreage planted, there were hopes of n bountiful liarvest, but the proloEccd drought in Texas materially ' altered the position, and all prospects of a, good yield were finally destroyed by the frosty which occurred at the end of October. Lancashire spinners will; therefore, apparently, have to reconcfib themselves to another yenr'of dear cotton and short supplies, which, in the present condition of the industry, is no* a very Hopeful' outlook. " ■