COMMERCIAL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1593, 12 September 1873, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

Chbistchurch. — The Lyttelton Times of Saturday last reports :— ln the absence of orders from the other Provinces trade in the. grain an! produce market is not over brisk. A' parcel of wh.;at changed hands duri"g She week at 4s 91, but there is not much demand, stocks <>f flour being heavy. In oats, we hear of a line of 500 sacks '.being sol<( at 4s 6~d. In bailey, nothing is d«'ing ; we quote nominally at 6s 9fl . There is not yet much "demand for grass seed, but more auimation is expected in the course of a week or- two : Rye grass now is worth about 6s 6rt per bushel. Potatoes still remain at 35s in Cnristchurch. There is no change m dairy produce, for which we quote as follftws— f.0.b., in Lyttelton : Butter, 11 £d ; cheese, 7id to 8d ; bacon and hams, 8d •in cloth, B£d. The stock market keeps quiet, but the return of 1-ng Hays, with plenty of feed, will ; soon cainse a stir, and, no doubt, during the summer a large amount of business will be transacted. The question uppermost in the juuids of dealers and stock'owners at present is, first, the price at which store ewes and wethers delivered after shearing will open, and wfaftt is to be done with the fat sheep,; for Ho dombt with the enormous increase of cross-bred sheep there will be a very large surplus to , dispose of in some way The W-eafc iCoast befog the ooly market open to a3, *ud ttat >being limited to a small number, there seems no other .wUefc but the melting and preserving .establishments, which, no doubt, will 4o » large ;b,us^ess 4»nng the season. At the yards, on Wednesday, ,ser,e v was # large display of both sheep anitl, cattle,, ftajjihe ' former, there were many, pen* of spjejidid quality, which is an indication of what we jriay lwk forward to as grass becomes more

plentiful. The best merinos, wethers, made 15s for a small lot ; then, 13s and 10a, for ewes. Some extra good long-woolled sheep, from Long Beach, went as high as 21s, and other lots in proportion to quality. Our quotation for mutton stands at 2ifa to 3|d per lb. Fat cattle were well competed for, and brought prices somewhat over our quotation of last vweek, viz : , 25s for prime, and 22s 6d per lOOlbs for medium quality. A large number of stores were offered aud brought full current rates.