COM MERC tAL,

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 38, 6 January 1880, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

Wellington, Friday. We extract the following from the N. Z. Tmies' monthly summary :— Butter.— Fresh butter in pickle from Nelson has been selling at from 8d to lOd per Ib, according to quality, but suit butter in kegs iB quite neglected and unsaleable. If the supply of fresh butf er should full off (luring the next month, as may be expected, holders of keg buttor mny look for improved r»tes. Uacon and Hams. — Cloth packed Canterbury bacon and hams have been in fair request at 9d to lOid per lb, and the supply being limited, prices look upward. Cheese.— Canterbury cheese has been in moderate demand at 7d to BA por lb, with fair stocks in dealers' hands ; and importation of New South Wales cheese has been selling at 7d to 8d per lh. Flour. — Southern flour is firm at £14 per ion for approved brands of Canterbury and Oaroara mills, in bakers' lots. Stocks in importers' hands are light, and as there is nc stock of Adelaide flour in the market, prices should remain firm. Although the crop in South Australia is very abundant, showing something like a surplus of 275,000 tons for export, still prices have not receded ; wheat, of the new crop, selling in large lines at 5s 4d, while prime old is os 9d, and the prico in the English market, which is bound to give a turn to our colonial rates, shows no prospect cf decline. .Adelaide ia from 59s to 60s, while New Zealand averages 4 s and 5s under. Grain. — Outs continue fully stocked, and prices through the month have remained low ; 2s 4d to 2s Od boing the highest figure obtainable for trade lots. Wheat for fowls' feed continues scarce, and is worth 4a to 4s fld ; maize, the same figure ; bran, overstocked, 7d to 8d ; pollard, £5 10* per ton. Potatoes are lower 3 and are coining forward in full supply at £8 to £10 per ton. Timber. — Tho demand for sawn timber continues active, in consequence of the number of buildings in course of erection, but we note no improvement in prices, .which remain at last month's rates. Wool. — G-reasy and cross-bred wools fetched from 6gd to 8d per lb for fleeces, at the auction sale held by the New Zealand Loan and Agency Co. on Wednesday, and the biddings were more than usually "brisk. Between 50 and 60 bales were cleared. Money.— Messrs Pownall and Co. report that during the last mouth the supply of capital for investment on mortgages has been extremely limited, and has commanded full rates of interest — some medium amounts as high as 12 -J per cent. Towards the close, however, there are decided symptoms of improvement, and with the successful placing of the new loan, the steady rise in the price of wool, aud the restoration of trade in the mother country, of which the influence will be felt here, we may look early in the new year for a larger supply of capital upon more reasonable lerms.