COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 35, 23 September 1871, Page 10

COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Mail Office, Friday evening. Everything has been extremely dull during the past week, and business matters may be generally reported in statu quo. Transactions in flour have comparatively ceased, most of the dealers being stocked; prices remain nominally at £l6 to £l6 5s for first-class Canterbury, and £l7 per ton for Adelaide. Teas of the finer sorts are muck wanted, the market being full of last season’s medium kindsSugars are unaltered in value j usual stocks. A shipment of Mauritius sugar equal in shade to Melbourne Co’s No 1 C should pay well if packed in similar fashion, in 56 or 701 b canvas bags, with weight marked on each bag, as much of the reputation acquired by the Melbourne Sugar Company’s sugar in the New Zealand market is due to the even weights and cleanly form in which it is got up. The Mauritius sort | is in reality a cheaper and more economical sugar. Kerosene has come in fully, and prices have given way—quotations, 2s lOd per gallon. Oats are inquired for, a first-rate sample being worth 3s 2d to 3s 3d per bushel for a shipment. At Messrs Bethune and Hunter’s sale by auction the following prices were realised : —Linseed oil, raw and boiled, 4s 9d to 5s per gal, in tins ; colza oil, 53 3d ; glass, large sizes, 45s to 8s per 100 feet; dryers, 22s per cwt; salt, fine, 77s 6d and 80s per ton ; coarse, 70s per ton ; soda crystals, £9 to £9 10s per ton ; black oil, £35 per ton, at Mr Pearce’s sale on the 19th current. Mr G. H. Vennell sold- 50,000 feet timber, 6 inch width, at 5s to 10s per 100 running feet for boards—a large assortment of saddlery at low prices. Saddles, 50s to 70s each. Crosse and Blackwell’s salad oil, pints, 13s 6d per doz ; Morton’s do, I2s; whiting, £5 103 per ton ; kerosene, 2s 9d and 3s per gallon ; spring cart, £l7 10s j and at Porirua Mr G. H. Vennell, at auction, sold cattle at 50s to 753 each; sheep, 13s 6d; and horses, 30s to £5. Fifty tons potatoes were offered at auction to-day by Mr G. Thomas, and a few lots sold at £4 per ton, the remainder being at that figure withdrawn. THE ENGLISH MARKETS. WOOL. Mr H. Schwartze, wool-broker, in a report published in the “ European Mail” of July 14, writes thus of the price of wool:—There are several circumstances which help to explain this sudden rise, and which are worth stating, as they enable the growers in some measure to judge of the nature of the movement, and of the chances it has of proving lasting. First is the fact of a very large rate of consumption in all countries; the mills are everywhere fully employed, and manufacturers generally express themselves satisfied with the condition of their industry. The English clip shows a decrease, variously estimated at from 10 to 20 per cent. In the United States it is said to fall short of the supply of the preceding year by over 20 per cent; and in France, though nothing definite is known on the subject, it is probable that an immense number of sheep have been slaughtered in consequence of the war. Thus in three great countries, in which sheep-breeding is of the first importance (the number of animals being probably between thirty and forty millions in each case), a more or less decided decrease in the production has taken place, and the large increase which the markets have for a long time yearly received from the colonies and South America also happens to fail at this juncture. The truth is, that the proportion of supply to consumption, which since 1866 has stood unfavorably to the grower, has this year been reversed and turned in bis favor j there is no more the stereotyped conviction of “ wool enough and to spare,” which infused so much indifference into all operations ; and hence the more energetic tone, and more active enterprise, which mark our sales at this moment.

The next series of sales will be on September 14 and November 23, and will probably contain together about 180,000 bales. With regard to the postponement of the clause in the French tariff in reference to textile fabrics, a correspondent of the “ Mail ” says :—“ This question has not as yet had any influence upon the wool market. French dealers and manufacturers know it must come shortly, and are laying in largely in consequence. The Americans, too, are buying up all the choice grease wool at very high prices, and light combing New Zealand, Adelaide, and Port Phillip wool are in demand for their market. Now and then some people think they see a little weakness in sale, but if so this has been recovered again the next day, so that on the whole prices have been, and are, well maintained for all. wools.” Another correspondent says:—“l have just ascertained that the tariff (French) does not, nor is not, likely to affect wool. Prices are very firm, and fresh foreign faces put in an appearance this week.” -flax. Messrs G. and J. A. Noble, of London, report the market as dull since their last, only a small business having been got through at about previous rates. At the public sales 1,900 bales were brought forward, of which the following only were disposed of: —97 bales sound, at £23 10s to £26 10s, 33 bales tow, sound and damaged, at £l2 15s, ex Estella, Wellington ; 11 bales tow, sound and damaged £l2, ex Electra j 1 bale sound, £24, ex Monarch ; 14 bales sound, £23 10s, ex Loch Leven ; 32 bales sound, £2 to £22, ex Hal-

cione ; 55 bales sound, £l6 to £22 ss, ex Asterope ; 205 bales sound, £lB 10s to £22 15s, 4 bales damaged, £l3 10s, ex Lord Warden, Sydney; 20 bales sound, and sound and damaged, £lB 10s, ex Monarch, Lyttelton ; 3 bales sound, £23 5a to £26 10s ; ex Firth of Clyde, Blenheim, and 15 bales sound, £26, 46 bales low, sound and damaged, £l2 10s to £l3, by the same vessel, from Port Underwood ; 29 bales sound, £3O, ex Countess of Kintore, Auckland; 29 bales sound, £ls 16s to £l6, ex Phillip Nelson, Canterbury ; 4 bales sound, £l2 15s, 1 bale damaged, £l2 lls, ex Loch Earn, Melbourne; and 1 bale sound, at £l3, ex Damascus. The rest were bought in.