AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 6, 31 March 1859, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 31st March. There is a prevailing., dullness of trade, not only in New Zealand and Australia, but all over the world. Such depressions usually follow after long and fierce wars. Tfie peace channels become disturbed ; unnatural excitements throw the ordinary course of things into, disorder; great and expensive demands arise; large and costly ships are required to transport men and materials from place lo place; a-nd ships are built and Heels are manned at an enormous outlay, and with an extraordinary rapidity, whilst the choicest merchaut ships being also hired for this war service, the freight of other ships, the rate of seamen's wages, the money paid for insurance, are all forced up lo a large price, which, when the war is ended can. no longer be obtained, and the consequence is that ships and sailors are thrown out of employment, live ship-owners suffer, and trade languishes. Such is the present posture of affairs in Europe, and such, we incline lo think, is one of the principal causes of the existing commercial dullness. By the latest intelligence from Melbourne and Sydney, there is little stirring in those places. Flour and grain remain at nearly the same rales previously quoted, that is to say—fine flour £l9, seconds £l7 per ton, wheal from 7s. lo 7s. 6d.

In Auckland where, at this season of the \year, the export trade is usually active, there is scarcely anything doing, our shipping list presenting but a single clearance, that of the schooner Adeona, for Adelaide, with 150 ions of potatoes. It is to be hoped that some speedy improvement may take piace, and that the Native growers will consult their own interests by supplying ihe means of employment to their own vessels, which have lately been too much at a stand still. We are inclined to hope that the present report coastwise, which is much more Favourable than any that has appeared for some lime past, is but the commencemeiu of a belter and a steadier trade. The arrivals since our last have been—the schooner Zephyr, 56 tons, Capt, Kenseit, from Nelson, with sundry merchandize, and 8 passengers;—the schooner Emily Allison, 99 ions, Capt. Wells, from Napier, with 18 bags wheat, 6550 lbs. wool, sundry goods, and 4 passengers;—the ship Excelsior, 790 tons, Captain Faithfull, from London, with a general cargo of merchandize, and 140 passengers ;—the schooner Hawkhead, 22 tens, Capt. Webster, from Napier, in ballast; the schooner Eliezer, 56 tons, Capt. Kean, from Napier, with 5950 lbs. wool, 5 bales sheep skins, 5 hides, lion tallow, 2 passengers;—the barque Midlothian, 593 tons, Captain Grant, in the Manuka a, from Wellington, m ballast, 6 passengers ; -Lord Worsley, steam ship, 290 tons, Capiain Johnson, in the Mauukau, from Svdue'v via New Plymouth, with 580 sheep, 128 bags of grass seed, 1000 lbs. butter, 2 cases cheese, 9 passengers;—the barque Breadalbnue, 224 tons, Captain Brooks, from Sydney, with a general cargo of merchandize, 5 passengers;—the brigatuine Balmoral, 107 ions, Captain King, from Wellington and Uohan Town, with 450 bags sugar, 2000 fe. j t sawn timber;—the ship Evening Star, 918 ions, Capiain Ewen, from Moreion Bay, with sheep, 2 passengers. This ship, like the Constaatine, has been very unfortunate, a'vout 600 sheep being all that arrived out of 2000 shipped. The departures are—the schoone.' Ann, 37 tons, Captain Wallace, for Napier, with 25,000 feel sawn limber, 4 kegs butter, sundry goods, 5 passengers;—the barque Midlothian, 595 tor.s, Capiain Grant, from the Manukau, for Hokia.iga, to load with timqer;—ihe steamship White Swan, 198 tons, Capt. Cellenj, for Napier, and the Southern

with sundry merchandize, 50 passengers;~the schooner Adeona, 115 ions, Captain Welsh, for Adelaide, with 150 lons potatoes, 1 passenger;—the sleam ship Lord Worsley, 290 tons, Capt. Johnson, from the Manukau, for New Plymouth and Sydney, "With sundries, 20 passengers. The arrivals and departures coastwise, for want of room, shut out from our last numbrr. We now, therefore, report the arrivals and departures from the -Ist to the 51 st March. There arrived,—94- vessels of 2272 tons, with 551 passengers, 4680 bushels wheat, 60 bushels maize, 550 bushels 'oats, 1551 bushels apples, 12 bushels quinces, 1588 lbs. grapes, 157 bushels peaches, J2 packages fruit, ll kits melons, 1 tin honey, 2 fowls, 20 dozen eggs, 1800 lbs. cheese, 960 lbs. butter, 10 cwt turnips, 46 owl onions, 15 tons potatoes, -27 bushels fcran, 7 head cattle, 12 horses, 220 sheep, 12 bushels grass seeds, 6 tons flax, 18 tons towai bark, 89 tons kauri gam, 1900 lbs. "wool, §6 barrels slush, 16 cwt leather. 6* tuns sperm, 5 tuns oil, 11 cwt whale bone", 47 pigs, 22 cwt salt pork, 5 cwt hams, 400 bushels sand, 400 bushels lime, 600 posts, 1050 rails, 560 feet house blocks, 500 feet ship timbers, 50 boat limbers, 27 rickers, 5 boats, 87,000 shingles, 156,500 feet sawn limber, 672| tons firewood. The departures coastwise, were 78 vessels of 1715 ions, with 190 passengers, and the usual trading cargoes. The subjoined are the Market Prices Current corrected to dale:— Bread Stuffs. Flour, fine, ~.'.. 2CW. per lon. Flour, second quality, . . 16/. per ton. Flour, of native manufacture, from 12M016 Biscuit at from . . 225. to 265. per cwt. Bread per loaf of 2lbs 6d. *tam Is sd. per bl. Groceries. Tea .... 91. to 91. i os. per chest Sugar . . . . 4d. to 6d. per lb. Coffee . . . . 10d'. per lb. Rice , . . . 2d. to % per lb.