AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 16, 30 July 1859, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the 15th to the 30th July. At the date of the last arrivals from the Australian Colonies, markets were in the same condition as we reported in our last number. Flour firm at 27?. for first quality. Wheat scarce, and, in many places, of inferior tjinrfity. The prevailing opinion appears to be that prices would be mai-n----tained. Potatoes were slowly working up,

and, as the season advances, there is every probability that they will fetch, better prices. Independently of tlie requirements of Australia, there is a new and growing source of demand for the agricultural produce of New Zealand from the French colony which has recently been planted in New Caledonia. It is quite true that no direct trade has, as yet, been opened up between the French settlements and any of our New Zealand ports; but, although this has not been done, there is a great and increasing intercourse between Port de France, the principal French town of New Caledonia, and Sydney; and as there are a number of French soldiers and French ships of war stationed there, and as these require to be provisioned and fed, there can be no question that if the New Zealand farmers will only extend their cultivations and increase their stores that they will find more than one available and profitable market whereto to ship their produce. There have been comparatively few arrivals from foreign ports since our last; we have only to report the steam ship Lord Worsley, 290 tons, Captain Johnson, from Sydney, with merchandise, and ten passengers; the brigantine Spray, 106 tons, Capl. McDonald, also from Sydney, with goods, and eleven passengers; the barque Traveller, 462 tons, Captain Ellis, from Loudon, with a large and valuable cargo of merchandise, and fourteen passengers; the steam ship Lord Worsley, 290 tons, Captain Johnson, from Napier, with sundries, and six passengers; the steam ship Lord Ashley, 294 tons,. Captain Stewart, from Nelson and New Plymouth to the Manukau, with sundry merchandise from Sydney and the South, and nineteen passengers. The departures were the steam ship Lord Worsley, 290 tons, Captain Johnson, for Napier, in ballast; the schooner Gazelle, 212 tons, Captain Cunningham, for Sydney, with 20 tous flour, 520 gallons oil, 5h tons kauri gum, 41 coils rope, 700 bushels'bran, 920 lbs. cheese, 42 tons potatoes, 12,000 feet sawn timber, 15 passengers; the steam ship Lord Ashley, 294 tons, Captain Stewart, from the Manukau, for New Plymouth, Nelson, and the South, with sundry goods, 51 passengers; the steam ship Lord Worsley, 290 tons, Captain Johnson, for Sydney, with goods, S- passengers; the schooner Eliezer, 56 ion;, Captain Kean, for Napier, with 25,171 feet sawn timber, 15,000 shingles, sundry merchandise; the brigantine Sprav, 106 tons, Captain McDonald, for Sydney,

with SO tons potatoes, 240 bushels brau. 827 lbs. wool, 87 hides, sundry merchandise, 6 passengers. Wheat continues to arrive, in fair quantities from the coast, but we regret to remark a continued decrease of maize as compared with the supplies of former vears. The arrivals were 48 vessels of 1115* tons, with 98 passengers, 7HB bushels wheat, 645 bushels maize, 6 bushels oats, 15.V tons potatoes, 25 cwl. pumpkins, 2 casks salt fish, 7 ions 3 cwt. sail pork, 15 cwt. bacon, 390 lbs. lard, 500 lbs. butter, 51 pigs, 10 fowls, 28 pigeons, I horse, 1 box eggs, 1 tun humpback oil, 5.V tons flax, 5 ions kauri gum, 65 tons copper ore, 441 tons firewood, 75 lbs. leather, 25 bundles fruit trees, i boat, 24,000 shingles, 178 posts, 600 rails, 1090 feel house blocks, 58,600 feet sawn timber. The departures coastwise were 47 vessels of 1078 tons, with 79 passengers, and the usual trading cargoes. The following arc the Market Prices Current corrected to date:— Bread Stuffs. Flour, fine, 24/. per ton. Flour, second quality, . . 17/. per ton. Flour, of native manufacture, from 16/ to 18/. Biscuit at from . . 225. to 265. per cwt. Bread per loaf of 2lbs. ..... 6d. Bra " Is 6d. per bl*. Groceries. Tea .... 9/. to 9/. 10s. per chest Sugar . . . . 4d. to 6d. per lb. Coffee . . . . lod. per lb. Uice . . . . 2d. to 2£ per lb. Soap .... 55s per cwt. Candles . . . . lOd. per lb. Beef and Mutton from . 6d. to 7d. per lb. Pork (fresh and salt) . . 3d, to Cd. ditto Live Stock. Dairy Cows . . 8/. to 12/. each. Calves from . . 255. to 40s. each.