AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 8, 30 April 1859, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 30th April. The latest intelligence from Australia, dating to the 19th of the month, gives anything but an encouraging report of the Commercial prospects there. At Sydney, business was slack; at Melbourne, it was no better; and, at Adelaide, it was duller in every department than ever. In the Markets there was no alteration, wheat, flour, potatoes, and other produce remaining at the prices stated in our last. At Sydney, on the 9th of April, it was reported that there was a tendency towards a rise in the prices of flour and wheat, but up to the 19th no such advance had taken place ; and the Melbourne dealers insist that this endeavour to force a rise proceeds entirely from a desire of the Adelaide growers to keep back their produce for higher prices —an attempt in which the Melbourne buyers affirm they will fail, as there are large supplies of corn, according to their assertions not only in South Australia, but in Tasmania and* Victoria likewise. These assertions, however, are at variancce with the estimates formed in Sydney; but in the meanwhile, the prices of wheat and flour are as high at Adelaide, as at Melbourne, a circumstance of very unusual occurrence. We are glad to observe that wheat from our own coast is coming much more freely to market, although it is to be regretted that a considerable quantity has been greatly injured whilst being harvested. Of native-grown maize, however, there is scarcely a sample to be met with, and if we be correctly informed, instead of looking

forward to this grain, as we have been long accustomed to do, as a prolific and important means of export, we are likely to have to import that as well as our wheat from a foreign shore, This is a very disheartening slate of affairs, and unless promptly remedied cannot fail to email disastrous results. But let us hope, now that seed time is at hand, that the most strenuous exertions will be made to compensate at next harvest for the unfortunate deficiencies of the present. The arrivals of the past fortnight have been the steam-ship White Swan, \9S tons, Captain Cellem, with 93 cheeses from Akaroa, 431 sheep from Napier, and sundry goods and 53 passengers from the s: veral Southern Settlements; the barque Isabella Hamilton, 258 tons, Captain Wiuleton, from Newcastle, with 265 tons coals; the steamship Pi ince Alfred, 705 ions, Captain Jarvis, from Sydney via Nelson and Slew Plymouth, with 280 sheep, 62 lambs, 1 bull,'4B kegs butter, 9 cases cheese, 1 cask pork, 52 bags grass seeds from New Plymouth, and 53 passengers; the brig Sarah, 121 tons, Gaplain Firth, from Sydney, with a general cargo of merchandise and 9 passengers. The departures were the schooner Gazelle, 212 tons, Captain Cunningham, with 50 tons potatoes, 4 passengers; the brig Moa, 257 tons, Captain Bowden, with 20 tons potatoes, 41 tons kauri gum, 16,882 lbs. wool, 44S lbs. cheese, 107 hides, 13 passengers; the briganlineSpray,lo6 tons, Captain Anderson, with 200 bags potatoes, 112 bags kauri gum, 5 bales wool, 25 hides; all for Sydney: the schooner Dolphin, 41 tons, Captain Doughty, for Napier, with 52 tons firewood, I horse, sundry goods, 5 passengers; the ship Excelsior, 682 tons, Captain Faithful, for China, in ballast; the steamship While Swan, 198 tons, Captain Cellem, for Napier, Wellington, and other Southern ports, with 155 bags flour, 8 tons potatoes, sundries, and 5 passengers; H.M.S. Iris, 26 guns, Captain Loring, C.B. for Sydney; H.M. sloop Elk, 12 guns, Captain Campion, for Wellington, and on a cruise ; the Prince Alfred, steamship, 705 tons, Captain Jarvis, for New Plymouth, Nelson, and Sydney, with sundries, and 12 passengers. There arrived from the coast, 46 vessels of 1154 tons, with 117 passengers, 3054 bushels wheat, 100 bushels. barley, 44 bushels maize, CIS bushels apples, 24 cwt.

potatoes, 42 cwt. onions. 30 lbs. butler, 56 lbs. honey, 9600 lbs.' pork, 2240 lbs. whalebone, 40 cwt. flax, 2 boxes eggs, 6 tons towai bark, 55£ tons kauri gum, 2 tuns sperm, 423 gallons black oil, 44 pigs. 4 horses, 20 head cattle, 4 whale boat, 750 posts and rails, 29,000 shingles, 58,000 feel sawn limber, and 575 tons firewood. The departure;, coastwise, were4s vessels of 981 tons, with 175 pagscngers, and Ihe usual trading cargoes. The following are ihe Market Prices current corrected to date: Bread Stuffs. Flour, fine, 20Z. per ton. Flour, second quality, . . i(sl. per ton. Flour, of native manufacture, from 12/ to 46 Biscuit at from . . 225. to 265. per cwt. Bread per loaf of 21bs. . . . 4|d. to sd. Bran 4s 3d. per bl. Groceries. Tea .... 9/. to9Z. 40s..perchesl Sugar . . . . 4d. to 6d. per lb. Coffee .... 40d. per lb. Rice . . . . 2d. to per lb. Soap .... 555. per cwt. Candles . . . . 40d. per lb. Tobacco .... 2s. 6d. to ss. per lb. Farm Produce. Wheal ... . . 7s. 6d. per bushel Maize 6s. 6d. perbushel Oats ss. per bushel Potatoes (new) . . SZ. to SJ. 40s. per ton Onions .... 6d. per lb. Hay (plentiful) . . bl. per ton. Kauri Gum . . . 91. to 40/. Buller .... 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. Eggs . . . . 2s. 3d. Bacon . . . . 4s. to 4s. 2d. Live Stock. Sheep from . . 255. to 545. a head. Dairy Cows . . 8/. to 12/. each. Calves from . . 255. to 40s. each. Beef and Mutton from . 6d. to 7d. per lb. Pork (fresh and salt) . . sd, to od. ditto