COMMERCIAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 101, 22 January 1918, Page 8

COMMERCIAL ITEMS

Yesterday's quotations for investment shares were sb follow Buyers'. Sellers. £ s. d. £ a. d. Bank N.Z. (old) 12 2 6 - Bank N.Z. (new) 17 3 0 — National Mortgage 3 18 (I — Wellington Investment... — 011 0 Well. Deposit. '. 0 6 9 — Well.,' Gas (£10) - 1212 6 National Insurance 2 19 6 N.Z. Insuranc 8 2 6 — 8.8. Insurancft 5 16 0 — Auokland Trams (0rd.)... .10 6 — Union Steam 110 — ICaiapoi Woollen® (0rd.)... 617 6 ' — Well. Woollen (ord.) 6 15 (1 - Westport, Coal 110-6 — Westport-Stockton '. 09 0 Waipa.'Colliery — 018 0 , N.Z. Paper Mills 0 18 9 ' Sharland's '(ord.) 17 6 — Customs duties collected at the port of Wellington yesterday . amounted to £5548 18s. THE MARKETS. The New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Distributing Co. report as under:—Straw, £5 per ton; maize, 6s. 9d. to 7s. per bushel: oats, feed, 4s. 6d. to 4e. Bd. per bushel; oats (crushed), sb. 2d. per bushel; seed oats, Australia, Algerians, dressed and clipped, ss. 6d,;'Gartons and Sparr'owbills, 4s. 9d. per bushel; Russian barley, Cape' seed, 6s. 6d. per bushol; barley, feed, sb. 6d. per bushel; rice meal, £8 10a.; pollard, supplies very short; bran, supplies very short; linseed oil cake, slabs, meal and nuts, £13 10s. per ton of 2000'bs.; 100's, 13s. 6d., 50's, 6b. 9d.; chaff, oaten sheaf. £8 to £9 per ton; molasses, 355.. per bewt. cask (casks extra); dressed pork, 70's to 90's, Bid., 90's to 140's. 74d. t0..6d.; heavy baconers, 6>d. to 7a3.; ohopperß, 3Jd. to 5Jd.; honey. 6d. per lb,; eggs, fresh, is. 6d.; potatoes, prime white, 2s 6d. to-4°; cabbage, choice, sb. per sack; cauliflower, Bb. sack; carrotß, best, 4b. to Bs.; onions, 12s. per owt.j turnips, white. 3s. 6d. per sack; lettuce, choice, is. to 2s.- 6d. case; French beans, 2s. 6d. part sack; beetroot, 6s. saok; spring onions, 6d. to Bd. per bundle; parsnips, 4a. to 6b. per sack; marrows, 3b. |to sa. per sack; swedes, 2s. 6d.; tomatoes, ,3s. to 65.; celery, 2s. to 3s, 6d. per dozen; green peas, Is. per peck; rhubarb, 4s. to 6s. per dozen bunches; apples, American, 9s. per case, dessert, ss. to 7s. 6d. per full case, cooking, 6a,. to 7s. per full case; pears, cooking, ss. to 6s. full case; apricots, Bs.' to 10s. per full case; plums, 2s. 6d. to ss. per full case; peaches, 4s. to; Bs. per. full case; raspberries, Bs. bucked; cherries, Is. 3d. to Is. sd. per lb.

ARGENTINE WHEAT. Although the prospects for tonnage have been unfavourable to Argentina, it ia cvi-

dent that the authorities ill that country are confident that means will be'discovered by which the crop will be exported. "Broomhall" states that early in November it was reported that large contracts had been fixed for the purchase of bags in India, and every eflort would he made to save and export expeditiously the large surplus of grain to he secured. The exportable surplus of wheat is variously estimated at 120,000,000 to 176,000,000 bushels, and of oats and linseed fully 1,000,000 tons of eaoh. There need now be no longer any doubt about the Argentine playing an important part in the international wheat campaign Ibis season; the least she will do vrill be to make it unnecessary for Americans to sweep their barns bare in order to feed the Allies,

COMBINATION SALES. When any commodity of everyday use becomes scarce retail traders are accustomed to make it a medium for disposing of other less desirable goods, by means of the system of "combination .sales." .That is to say, a buyer has to take something which he does not desire in order to Qualify himself to purchase what bn really wantß. Thiß method lias been applied to tho sale of sugar in small quantities in the Dnited States, but has since heen forbidden by the Pond Administration, exonpt where sugar is sold in combination with eornmeal. The authority mentioned points out that combination sales frequently result in the sale of more foodstuffs than the particular purchaser would ordinarily buy, and hence it is regarded under .the Act as a wasteful practice. As a wheat conservation measure, however, dealers are allowed to sell sugar in combination with cornrueal at the rate of lib. of sugar with 21b. of eornmeal. As the corn crop is the largest ever grown in the United States, this permit is rather an astute move on the part of the Food Administration.