AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume V, Issue 7, 31 March 1858, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 31st March. It is no very easy matter, at the present moment, to form anything like a true conjecture respecting the price at which agricultural produce is likely to rule during the approaching winter. The latest advices from Australia are puzzling on s subject; for, whilst tbey represent the stocks of flour and grain imported from abroad as rapidly diminishing,. whilst they acquaint us that their own home grown wheat is arriving very slowly in the market, and whilst tbey furnish us wjth fresh accounts ol failure of the harvests in many of the most productive parts of South Australia, the Melbourne

papers assert ibai the inclination to a rise in that market will not be maintained and thai prices during cbe season will Tall below what they now are. For our own part we cannot discover why this fall is likely to occur. In Melbourne, ibey admit that importations must take place; hut, if ins crops in South Australia, Tasmania, and New South Wales have partially failed, we should imagine that a rise and not a decline in price must inevitably ensue. Flour was more in demand and nrm at M. for fine quality* and wheat ranged from 6s. to 6s. 9di per bushel. Potatoes are said to be scarce, and the prices quoted, both in the Sydney and Bobart Town markets, are from 10?. to I It. per ton. The December Mail from Europe has arrived, and the. advU:es received are of a more satisfactory character.- The violence of the great commercial storm was subsiding, and trade returning to its usual channels* There seems to be a more cheerful tone in the Australian colonies, and with renovated energy on their parts, Ihere will be a renewed activity on our own Vast numbers of the labouring classes had been thrown out of work in Great Britain, and an extensive emigration to AusttaUa and New Zealand was likely to be the consequence. In the provision trade, there are we think, discernible- symptoms of a reaction. Teas and sugars are still high, but it is thought that they must ere long return to a more legitimate level. We have bad various arrivals since our last, and among these are the schooner Sybil, 108 tons, Captain T. G. Kelly, with goods and 15 passengers from Sydney; the fine ship Joseph Fletcher, 672 tons, Captain Pook, with a genorat cargo of merchandise and 150 passengers from London; the schooner Emily Allison, 99 tons, Captain Collins, with sundry goods and 19 passengers from Melbourne; the schooner Esther, 54 tons, Captain Blair, from Wellington and Port Napier, with sundries, and 16 passengers; the brigantine Leveret, 147 tons. Captain Benedict, from San Francisco and Honolulu. This vessel is not freighted with goods; she brings ten horses, five trained dogs, a company of equestrian performers, under the management of Mr. Rowe, whom manv of our readers will recollect to have performed in a Circus in Queen Street between five and six years since. Two of Mr. Howes ponies are not much larger than Newfoundland dogs.. The schooner Gazelle, 212

ions, Captain Jones, from Sydney, with merchandise and 8 passengers. There has been i good deal of activity In our export trade. The barque Tatnar, 556 tons, Captain Ross, look away 151. 000 feet of sawu timber, 2) spars, and 10 tons potatoes for Butavia: the bri amine Bristol, 451 tons, Captain McLean, with 700 bushels bran, 130 tons potatoes, 600 bushels oats, and 4 passengers for Sydney; the brigMoa, 237 tons, Captain Bowden, with 66 tons potatoes, 70 cwt onions, 47 tons kauri gum, 2 tuns sperm oil, 5 cwt cheese, sundry merchandise and thirty-one passengers, for Sydney; the schooner Svbii, 108 tons, Captain T. 6. Kelly, with 8600 feet sawn limber, 60 tens potatoes, 37 cwt o.iions, 27 hides, 42 calfskins, 500 lbs. whale bone, and 5 passengers, for Sydney; tbe schooner Eliezer, 56 tons, Captain Kean, wilb 80 tons firewood and a quantity of merchandise; the schooner Ellen, 40 tons, Captain Ellis, with 7000 feet sawn timber, 300 bricks, and a full cargo of goods, the cutter Traveller's Bride, 50 tons, Capt. Marks, with 50 tons firewood and merchandise; the schooner Dolphin, Capt. Doughty, with merchandise and firewood; all for Port Napier; and the barque General Wool, 473 tons, Capt. Tonner, for Melbourne, with 72 tons kauri gum, 60 tons potatoes, 1 cask onions, 5 cwt. flax, sundry merchandise and 10 passengers. Tbe number of passengers arrived bas been 226. > The number thai have departed 30. The arrivals and the receipt of produce coastwise, during tbe past fortn ght, have been considerable consisting of 37 vessels of 1483 tons with 122 passengers, 6738 bushels wheat, 550 bushels maize, 982 bushels apples, 84 bushels barley, 44 bushels oats, 15 bushels quinces, 43 cwt potatoes, 22 cwt onions, 10 cwt lax, 500 lbs. whale bone, 60 lbs. grapes, 5 tons towai bark, 104 tons kauri gum, 498 tons firewood, 13$ tuns sperm oil, tuns black. 21 bags biscuit, 50 doeen smoked fish, Vbox eggs. 16 barrels slusb, 17cases and boxes tobacco, 117 totara piles, 1100 posts and rails, 60 feet house blocks, 3000 bricks, 20. 000 shingles, 82-123 feet sawn timber, 15. 346 lbs. wool, 16 horses, 275 sheep, 36 fowls, 7 tnrkies, 9 pigs, 15 bushels pears. The departures coastwise have been 33 vessels of 781 ions, with 64 passengers, and tbe usnal amounts supplies. Amongst those have been supplies for tbe American whaling ships which bave visited tbe ports of Kercra-

reka and Mongonui in very considerable Members during the present season. It is reported that the steam ship William Denny which was stranded near the North Cape in March 1837 is so fur advanced in her repairs that she is expected to be got afloat again in a few weeks, and then proceed to Sydney to refit. Mr. Scott who has cooducted those repairs has, we are informed, been grealy assisted by the Chief Noble and his people, and is therefore much obliged to them* We subjoin the Market prices current, corrected to dale. Bread Stctts. flour, fine, . . . . . IZL per ton. Flour, second qttality, . • 441. per ton. Floor of native manufacture from 402. to 42 Biscuit at from . • 90s. to 255. per cwt. Bread per loaf of 2lbs. . . 4d. to 3d, Bran . -. . . . .4s. Od. per bl. Beef and Mutton from . 6d.~t0 ?d. per Tb. Pork (fresh and sth) . „ Sd.toOd.ditio Farm Produce. Wheat »„.... ss. per busbe* Maize . ... 6s. 6d. to 7s. per bushel Oats ..••••'• 7s. per bushel Potatoes 6/. to 72. per ton Onions . . 3d. to 3d. per lb. Hay (plei Viful) . . 82. per ton. Kauri Gum . . . 92. to 402. Live Stock. Sheep from • . 20s. to 30s. a head. Dairy Gows • . 82. to 4 2(. each. Calves from • ... - 255. to 40s. each. Groceries. Tea .... 92. to 91.405. per chest Sugar . . . . 7d. to Bd. per lb. Coulee . . • . 40d. per lb. Rice .... 2d to 2J per lb. Soap • • • • 355. per cwt. Candles • . . . 40d. per lb. Tobacco • . . .. 2s. 6d. to 3s. per lb. Dairy Produce, Butter .... 48.1b. Eggs • . , • 4s. perdoz. Poultry r . . , 35.6 d. per couple