The Auckland Peovision Trade.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 86, 8 April 1852, Page 2

The Auckland Peovision Trade.

[From the Southern Cross.] In our present issue we supply the first quarterly return for 1852, of this interesting and increasing branch of our internal commerce. Since we entered the field, about a year since, we have received an able mid cUiciriit accession to our commercial la istics in consequence ol the praiseworthy energy displayed by the Resident Magistrate, ill collating a monthly report of the various items of native produce conveyed to Auckland and Onoliuiiga in canoes This last trade, exhibited for the month of January, an import value of C.'K'u j for the month of I'ebruaiy, of £5Ol. Now, as these are notoriously two of the very dullest mouths of the year, and as tlu-y furnish an aggregate annual record of an importation to the amount of £4950, even at tha bi-monthly rate, upon these hitherto unnoticed items of native traffic, ive conceive that, conjoined with our own tabul ir details, a remarkably satisfactory account of the impoilance of " The Auckland Provision Trtde" has been thereby satisfactorily established. In our own details, we have merely given t'.e amounts of the various articles imported, leaving the task of calculating their money value to be ascertained according to the prices current of the day. In comparing the first quarter of 1852 with the similar quarter for ISSI, we lind an extraordinary decrease in some article, - , and a no less extraordinary increase in others. I'or example, we And 13,050 bushels of wheat imported in the lirst quarter of 1851 reduced to aii import of 32(10 bushels in 1852. This, without explanation, might be startling ; but when we state that wheat more than doubled its price between March and July, 1851, when we add that it has since sunk to its previous level, and when we lurtlier state that the natives are by no means adequately conversant with the causes of the fluctuation in the corn trade, we think we have adduced suflicient proof that the defalcation arises from no deliciency of grain in sto'e, but simply from an idea that prices will rule higher as the winter advauces.

In several other articles the deficiency of the Quarter's iuip-Ttation is but tri(lin<; in man) ami those the most valuable, it is largely enhanced—especially in whale oil and bone. In tlie first quaiter of ISSI we had no return of that commodi'y. l-'or the present quarter. « exhibit an importation of tuns and .M casKs sperm, and 17 tuns and "2 i-a-dcs back oil, with I ton and (52 bundles ol bone. 1 hese are invaluable sets off against a few thousand bufliels of wh.'at, and a few lons of potatoes and onions, merdy for a time withheld. Indeed, taken as a whole, and as a in si anniversary contrast, we cannot but congratulate ourselves and our fellow-colonists upon the cieatly enhanced commercial value exhibited 'by the Auckland Provision Trade ill the first quailer of 1552. AMOUNT OF rnOVISIONS DROUGHT COASTWISE.

Particulars. Junuai i/. Frlrtmru. No. of ve«»cU Tonnage .. W lieai Maize .... XI 23.'* 0 l.titluls 1.-.10 " '23 .wr> 7tVI bush. UK) " •10 ,f 21 fi:>8 V.VJl) bu&hels v'Uttrt IC-J tons IfiJ- .«• I'ot.ltOfS. . . • O'iona .... \ (on 8 " 12 tons 21 " 4 " CMile 10 22 iilicfp CO .. — ■ U» £0 X S2 Salt Pork .. Uacon .... Lard Slush Whale Oil... Whalebone . Flax Wool lulling 2 tons G casks. 2"0 lbs. t package. 20 casks 1J Is. spern 12 casks 41 £ (on 3* tons 2j tons 20 kegs •12 casks 7olnns sperm 7 itns'-mltt •nsks black 02 bundles 4 tons 14 tons 0 c.»b^ s 1 1 eg 17 casks K> tuns, 22 •asks speini .J ton 1 44 22 b.les DuUcr .... Ambergris... 8 kegs 3 cvvt. —