AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 13, 30 November 1857, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 30th November. There has been a very great degree of dullness prevalent, for some time past, not only in the commercial affairs of New Zealand but of all the neighbouring colonies, and the latest, and indeed the only advices by the brig Gertrude, (2) Captain Grange,! arrived from Melbourne since our last' report, represent the aspect of Commercial matters in a much less cheerful light than we could wish. j In Australia, as in New Zealand, the season has been a most ungenial one ; the j roads are, as yet, barely practicable fori internal traffic goods have consequently! been accumulating largely in the Melbourne! and other markets—the" orders usually so extensive at this period of the year have vet' been, deferred, population of "the working j class continues to be poured in, and clings : to the cities and large towns—and thus a i want of employment is added to the other j eries of the dullness of the limes, and a con- j siderable degree of pressure is, for the ' moment, the consequence. ! The Provision Markets nre in a verv! peculiar position. Instead of the rise, which j was so generally expected to have taken j place, there has been a slight decline; For ! flour of the best quality from £l9. 10s. to I £2O was the highest price obtainable at! Melbourne ; several samples were parted at a considerably lower figure by those holders j who were obliged to sell. There were others, however, who continued to hold their stocks under a belief that when the roads become passable and the large country orders can be executed, prices must inevi- j tably go up. Wheat was still quoted at from 85.,6 d. to 10s. Maize was saleable at a fair value, but Oats had fallen from the unnatural and extravagant figure at which fhev had ruled, so long. From all that we can gather from present advices add future, prospects, we.see nothing at all discouraging to the New Zealand

farmers. Tt is by moderate prices and moderate profits alone that they can hope to obtain a commanding influence in the Australian markets. Exorbitant prices occassion shipments from all parts of the world and a glut is the 'consequence, but fair and reasonable rates are certain, in the long run, to place the neighbouring producer (such as New Zealand is) in a position to defy distant competition. The arrivals from and the departures to foreign ports have been fewnamely the brig Gertrude, (2) 217 tons, Captain Grange, from Melbourne, with sundry merchandise and 16 passengers. The departures have been the ship Anne Longton, 689 tons, Capt. Kirby. for Adelaide and India, in ballast, 2 passengers; the brig Gertrude (1) 118 tons, Captain Punning, for Hobart Town, with 42 tuns oil, 23 tons kauri gum, II bales wool, 2 tons tallow. 6 v io sheep skins, no passengers; and the schooner Gazelle, 212 tons, Captaisi Jones, for Sydney, with 53,000 feet sawn timber, 71 tons kauri gum, 4 bales wool, 67 hides, and 11 passengers. The arrivals from the neighbouring Provinces have bien, the schooner Acadian, 42 tons, Captain Robbins, from Wellington with 6 passengers; the schooner Shepherdess, 40 tons, Captain Scott, from Ahuriri, alter a weary passage of 21 days, with 32 shepp out of 150 shipped and i passenger; and the schooner Spray, 106 tons, Captain Anderson, from Nelson, with 6 passengers, and a considerable part of her cargo shipped ai Auckland ; the schooner Emerald Isle, 35 tons, Captain Oakes, from New Plymouth, with 15 tons potatoes, 2 kegs butter, sundry merchandise, and 7 passengers. The only departures have been the schooner Osprey, 47 tons, Captain Hunt, for Kawhiaand Nelson with 500 bags flour, 5550 lbs bacon, 5 casks pork, 1 ton biscuit, i ton potatoes, 7000 feet sawn timber, a variety of merchandise, but no passengers; the schooner Acadian, 42 tons, Captain Robbins, for Wellington, with a large quantity of gunpowder and military stores,. 5 passengers. The arrivals from the Coast have been much more numerous than those reported in our last. They consist of 41 vessels of 919 tons, with 112 passengers, 5994 bushels wheat, 1773 bushels maize, 2 tons potatoes, 0 j cwts. bacon, 93 cwt. salt pork, 1 cwt. lard, i keg butter, 20 dozen eggs, 4 boxes fruit, 14 pigs, 50 head cattle, J cwt. flax, 4 3 tons kauri gum, 4 tuns sperm, 8 tuns >'ew Zealand caught black oil, 5 bales and