AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 15, 31 December 1857, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 31st December. By the arrival of the schooner Gazelle, after a fine passage of nine days, we have news from Sydney to the 18th of the present month. Mercantile dulness and depression arestiil prevalent; and the flour and grain markets, so far from rising, continue to exhibit a downward tendency. Complaints are rife of difficulty in effecting sales even at prices considerably lower than those quoted by millers and dealers. We see nothing in this, however, at all calculated to discourage the Agricultural enterprise of New Zealand. Produce has long ranged much beyond its legitimate value, and sooner or later a reaction and decline were inevitable. Throughout the year, the importations of bivadsmfTs into . Australia were of a most extensive kind. Granaries and Warehouses were heavily stocked, and prices were so high that a diminished consumption look place. Wheat docs uol improve in quality hv keeping any more than flour; and with new °graia

coming: to hand its value becomes depreciated, especially when he harvest to be garnered is at all promising. This has been the case throughout Australia for some lime ; buyers are consequently shy, and, at this particular season, purchases arc made with '-unusual camion. AH this is natural and intelligible; and we can, therefore discover no cause for uneasiness in finding things returning to a more natural level. We can only repeat a truth, which cannot be 100 -frequently or too urgently inculcated—that it is only by selling at such moderate prices as shall exeludo all other competitors' that New Zealand can hope to command the Australian markets. The harvests had been only partially gathered. In many quarters, the quality is reported to be excellent, but the quantity light. The season has barely -sufficiently advanced to calculate with any degree of certainty of the future, but the present prevalent impression seems to be that prices have seen their lowest. The' quotations given are the same as our last; but, as we have already said, sales have been made at much lover rates than those given ■iu lhe commercial lists. These depressions and fluctuations in Australia have of coarse materially affected the Auckland markets. Prices here, are qtiite as difficult, if not more difficult, to be relied on, than the quotations given in Sydney, Melbourne. Adelaide, or llobart Town. They are nominal quotations, bales have been made at prices very different from those which appear in our Market Prices Current, so lhat native sellers must neither be surprised at the difference they will be sure to meet, nor yet accuse us of inaccuracy or misrepresentation in supplvins? them with the nearest approximation towards lhe actual prices now going. Markets, like other matters, are sometimes not very ea*y to be understood. They are subject to strange agitations, such as at present exist; out, we think we can discern a more steady and healthy state of affairs at hand. We have had only three arrivals since our last:--the bnganiine Bristol, ISO tons, Captain :>lcLeati, and the schooner Gazelle 212 ions, Captain, Jones, both from Sydney' with goods, and i 9 passengers; and the cutter burpnse, 50 tons, Braund, from Ahurui with 200 sheep, and A passenger, lhe departures have been :-ihe schooner Emerald Isle, 5* tons, Captain Oakcs, for New Plymouth,with 400 bushels wheat,*oo bags flour; schooner Pelsart,4o tons, Capram Symontfc, for New Plymouth, with

40,00) feet sawn limber, and 300 posts;, schooner Sei Serpent, 60 ions, Captain Blair| for Ahuriri, wit') a full carg > of merchandise*, ! and 9 passe igers ; brig, Gil Bias, 175 tons, j Captain Ni»*.ol, for Otago, with 107,000 | feet sawn timber, 50,00 shingles, 43,000: palings, and 7. passengers; and the schooner j Emily Allison, 99 tons, Captain Collins, for Melbourne, with 718 bags kauri gum, 4 bales : flax, 682 pieces timber, and 5 p- ssengers Considering the late period of the year, ■ the produce received coastwise continues lo be of satisfactory amount. There have arrived, during the lasl 43 vessels, of 1038 tons, with 125 passengers, 5306 bushels wheat, 940 bushels maize 60cwt. poiaioes, 92cwt. onions, 2-1 packages fruits, 42 dozen hams,' 69 cwt. salt pork, 23 pigs- 48 head cattle, 299 sheep, 8 tons kauri gum, 4 tuns 43 casks black oil, 4 gallons sperm oil. *2 tons birch bark, 6 hides, ISO sheep skins, 2 boats, 38 piles, 600 palings, 700 po<ts and rails, 40 bales and 93 bags wool, o'i,ooo feel sawn timber, and 533 tons firewood. The departures coastwise, during the same period, have been 46 vessels, of 993 tons, with 72 passengers, and the usual cargoes of merchandise. The following are the Market Prices Current corrected to date. Bread Stuffs. Flour, fine, . . . . . 48?. per ton. Flour, second quality, . . 46J. per ton. Flour of nalive manufacture from 42*. to 45Z. Biscuit at from . . 245. to 50s. per cwt. Bread per I«ifof2lbs. . . ; 3d. Bran . . . 4s. Od. 4s. 3d. per bl. Beef and Mutton from . 3d. to 6d. per lb. Pork (fresh and salt) . . sd.to6d.diuo Farm Produce. Wheat ... ss. 6d. to 6s. per bushel Maize .... ss. 6d. to 6s. per bushel Oats . . • . 7s. to 7s. 6d. per bushel Potatoes . . 7i. 40s. to Si. 40s. per lon Onions .... 3d. per lb. Hay (plei-iiful) . . s*. per tor.. Kauri Gum . . . 40/. per ton »& Live Stock. Sheep from . . 475. to 255. a head. Dairy Cows - : ;- . • B*. to 12*. eacli. Calves from . . 25s.'to dOs. each. '