AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume V, Issue 1, 15 January 1858, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT

From the Ist to the 15th January. The same inactivity and depression, which have so long characterized the Produce Markets of Australia, continued to prevail at the date of our last intelligence from Sydney, which was to the 2-itii of December last:—At that dale, the Mails from Europe and India, though fifteen days beyond their, lime, had not arrived: and that circum- j stance had tended to add much to the mi- j certainty and gloom that was overhanging commercial affairs. Flour and Wheal, in fact most articles of Agricultural produce. i were low in price and difficult of sa'e. It is true that the Market prices current exhibit no differafTce in the figures which have for some lime past been given : it is also true Ibat ihe Australian farmers were not rushing into market with their grain, and thai extensive clearing out sales of foreign flour were being effected ;%till, with all the.se lighienings of crowded granaries, it appears to be quite clear that a reliable market value for flour or grain c&nnot al tlie present be stated, and that the prices given are just such :s the position ol the seller and the' exigencies of the buyer may determine. An opiuion seems to obtain that the markets have seen their lowest, but lhat, we suppose must greatly depend upon the results of the harvests the n being garnered. We must, therefore, be content to wait some lime before we can calculate the probable prices of the current year with any degree of confidence. Commercial affairs have seldom been so supine as they, at present, are in Auckland, and the cheerless lidings front the other colonies are little calculated to improve them. This depression, however, is not limited to this quarter of the world—England, France, America, and other of the mighty nations of the earth have bad ibeir serious financial difficulties to contend against; and ihc whole of Northern Europe, at the dale of the latest intelligence, (loth October) was suffering from the ravages of that appalling disease the cholera, which, in the town of Gluckstadl, on lit* river Elbe, (a pori employing a good many whale ships,) had lost forty out of every hundred of its inbabiiauis. The arrivals and departures since our last have been extremely few Among the former we have had the brig Moa, 2315 tons,

Capiain Bowden, from Sydney,-with 100 sheep, out of 200 shipped, a genet al cargo I oF' merchandize, and 42 passengers; the: barque William Walton, 480 tons, Captain | J. H. Brown, from Loudon, with an assorted : cargo of goods, and 4i passengers; this' vessel called at Taranaki on her way hither j and landed a quantity of goods and 21 pass'engprs; and the barque Mousam, 198 tons, Captain Macdojnald, from Uobart Town, with a full cargo consisting of Uobart building stone, shingles, palings, Tasuianian hard wood, and 12 passengers. The departures have been the cutter Surprise, SO tons, Captain Braund, for Ahuriri, with 20 cwt. tl.uir, a lull cargo of meivhandize, and two passengers; the brigantine Bristol, 130 tons, Captain McLean, for Sydney, with 72 tons kauri gum, 40 hides,*44 bales wool, 500 bushels bran, 31 tuns black oil, 4000 fe;H sawn timber, i bale flax kits, sundry merchandize and I passenger; theschooner tiszellc, 212 tons, Capiain Philip' Jones, fr>r Sydney, with ISO to is kauri gum, 4980 bushels bran, 2 cwt. whale bone, 5 hogsheads oil, 1 case New Zealand gold, G bales wool, 51 bales wool lashing, 16,000 feel sawti limber, 48 hides, 1 bale sheep skins, awl 20 passengers; the schooner Anne, 50 tons, Captain Ryan, for Ahuriri, with 11,000 feet sawn timber, 1003 palings] 4000 shingles, 23 house blocks, and 4 pilei j the cutler Glance, 20 ions, Captain Rattray, for Ahuriri, with 150 posts, 2000 pa'ings,' 2000 bricks, 5 tons flour. 15 cwt, biscuit' and 1 passenger, 11. M. Ship Iris, 26 guns, Capiain Loring, C. B , having received his Excellency ihe Governor and suite with yards manned", and under a salute from Fort Britomart and ihe ship, sailed for the Bay of Islands on the 6ih instant. The frigate arrived at Kororareka the following day, and his Excellency landed amidst the greetings of a large concourse of Natives aitd Europeans assembled to receive him. His Excellency has since gone on a visit to A Waimate, Hokiaiiga, and utber places of the district jprevious to his return to Auckland. The arrivals coastwise are always few at the present period of the year, tbolfe, since our last, have been 25 vessels of 576 tons, with 50 passengers, 1714 bushels wheat, 1)4 bushels maize, 10 V cwt. potatoes, 2 cwt. onions, 47 cwt. bacon and hams, 43 cwt. salt pork, 20 bushels apples, 50 quarts

gooseberries, 4 ions kauri gum, 5 tuns blank oil, 200. kits ffax, 2500 lbs. wool, 174 sheep, 49 head cattle, 1 horse, 11 gpese, 1 boat, 800 rails, 15,918 feet sawn timber, 1 2,000 palings, 36.000 sbiugles, and'l3o tons firewood. The departures coastwise, consist of 29 vessels of 604 tons, 23 passengers, and tly* usual trading cargoes. The subjoined are the Market Prices current corrected to date . Bread Stuffs." Flour, fine, . . . . . 161, per ton. Flour, second quality, . . 14J. per ton. Flour or native manufacture from 1 Of. to 12 Biscuit at from . . 20s. to 255. per cw:. Bread per loaf of 21 bs. . .3d. Bran is. Od. per bl. Beef and Mutton from . 3d. to '<3d. per lb. Pork (fresh and salt) . . sd. lo(kl.dkto Farm Produce. Wheat • , . % , . os. per bushel Maize * . . . 6s. 6d. to 7s. per bushel 7s. per bushel Potatoes . . 6/. 10s. to 71.105. per ton Onions .... 3d. per lb. Hay (pler.iiful) . . 51. per tor.. Kauri Gum . . . 10*. per ton Live Stoce. Sheep from . . 17s. to 235. a head. Dairy Cows , . 81. to 12/. each. Calvts from . • 28s. to 40s. each. Groceries. Tea . . . . 9J. to 9J, 10s. per chest Sugar V. . . 7d. to Bd. per lb. Coffee . • • . lOd. per lb.Rice . . . . 2d- to 2J per lb. Soap • • . • 355. per cwt. Candles .... 10J. per lb. Tobacco . . • . . 2s. 6d. to 3s. per lb. Dairy Produce, \ Butter .... Is. lb. Eggs . . , . Is. per doz. Poultry . . . . 3s. 6d. per couple