Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 16, 1902. N.Z. Hemp.

Manawatu Herald, 16 December 1902, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 16, 1902. N.Z. Hemp.

On the 6th of this..month we attempted to foreshadow the probable state of the flax market, owing to a hesitancy on the part of the Home buyers to purchase at present rates, fearing, so it was reported, a large increase in the receipts of Manila fibre. At the time of writing we had no report from Manila later than March, and we had to arrive at the result we did by a system of averages and the prices in London quoted by cablegram. We ventured to predict that “It appears to us extremely unlikely, judging by the prices paid in London for Manila this week (6th Dec.) that any appreciable difference will be found to the stock on hand at the end of this year in Manila, and that we shall witness, as in the past, prices hardening in January.” Since then we are in receipt of the Manila brokers' reports up to the 15th October, and the market report of Messrs Landauer & Co., of London, of the 22nd October, and it is interesting to note that their opinions and statements bear out the conclusion we had come to in a remarkable manner. On the 30th September it was stated that in Manila the market for hemp remains very firm and there are no sellers at under £4O 5s 5d a ton. On the 15th October the market was quoted firm at £B9 17s 4d.

Messrs Landauer report “ Notwithstanding the heavy receipts, which were only 1,000 bales in excess of the quantity expected, the market in Manila is absolutely without change, and the stock remaining in dealers' hands there ia estimated to be only 5,000 or 6,000 bales, all the available hemp having been sold to America and Europe, which fact alone sufficiently demonstrates the good and heavy consumption existing for the article. On this side our markets, as far as Manila hemp is concerned, remain practically without change, the houses refusing to give way in price, and values are the same as per our last report." With reference to the large demand for Manila in America and Canada the Messrs Landauer say “ The large quantity shipped and in course of shipment to America is conclusive proof of the large consumption that exists in that part of the world for the article, and had it not been for the enormous quantity of inferior foreign fibres consumed by America during the last six months, the demand for Manila would have been an exceedingly heavy one, and the prices of Manila hemp greatly enhanced accordingly. We estimate that the extent to which America has bought foreign fibres (which are chiefly of Mexican origin) is in any case a question of about 8,000 tons during the last six months, which, coupled with the fact that the stocks in New York and Boston on October Ist, were only 9,640 bales, conclusively demonstrates that the consumption in America for Manila hemp is constantly increasing, and in consequence lower prices for the remainder of this year are not to be expected, nor do we consider that for the first three or four months of the New Year that prices will to any appreciable extent decline.” Messrs Landauer further state that “ According to information re- ' ceived from our Manila friends, the

total receipts for the present year will not exceed 840,000 or 850,000 bales, and if we take into consideration the present consumption, based on the figures furnished with regard to the consumption during the past two years, it will be found that the receipts do not in any way exceed the average rate of consumption, but on the other hand are in reality considerably less than the consumption, if it were not for the large quantities of outside fibres that have been consumed in America as well as in Europe during the past six or nine months.”

Thera is undoubtedly a very marked change in the direction of the exports from Manila, but the above extract from the report of Messrs Landauer & Co. sets at rest what might have led to a fear that a falling off in the hemp trade had taken place. It appears that the total shipments from the Ist January to the 15th October in each of the last three years was as follows—ln 1900 357,989 bales were shipped to Great Britain, and 106,407 bales to the United States and Canada; in 1901 589,776 bales were sent to Great Britain and only 141,945 bales to America; whilst this year only 299,087 have been shipped to Great Britain, and America has received 276,282 bales. The total shipments for the same period shows in 1900 there were 686,871 bale*; in 1901, as many a 5784,621 bales; and this year 617,683 bales. These facts endorse the London firm’s conclusion that the receipts do not in any way exceed the average rate of consumption, and that lower prices are not to be expected.