COLONIAL WOOL SALES. [From the Colonial Gazette, August 12.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 68, 24 January 1846, Page 3

COLONIAL WOOL SALES. [From the Colonial Gazette, August 12.]

The principal series of public sales of colonial wool commenced on the 3d July, and terminated on the 26th. The quantity brought forward consisted of 9,966 hags Australian, 9,272 Van Diemen'sLand, 8,793.P0rt Philip,) 1,887 South Australian, 3,201 Cape .of Good Hope, 524 East India. The whole of the above considerable quantity met with willing buyers throughout, and it, is encouraging to know that so large a pro-, portion of the season's clip has been disposed; of at highly satisfactory rates. The good condition and quality of many of the Australian flocks caused clothing qualities, to be much in request, more especially from the short sup-: plies from Germany, and, the high prices ob-' tamed at the German fairs. We trust that increased attention and increased quantity will, ere long, supersede the necessity of our looking to the continent for supplies of such descriptions. We would suggest the necessity of not putting various qualities in the same package, however studiously pointed out, as has been J the case in most instances.. The following, ate the' average prices :—: — Australian flocks : combing, Is, lOdi to 2s. 4|d. ; clothing (superior), 2s. to 3s. l^d- ; average do., Is. Bd. to Is. lid. ; lambs', 2s. l|d. to 2s. 7|d. ; locks, Is. 3d. to Is. B"|d. Van Diemerts Land : combing, Is. lOd. to 2s. 2d. ; clothing (superior), Is. lid. to 2s. 4d. ; average ditto, Is. Bd. to Is. lid. ; inferior ditto, Is. 6d, to Is. Bd. ; lambs', 2, to 2s. 10|d. ; locks, Is. to Is. 6d. Port Phillip : good flocks, Is. 9d. to 2s. l|d. ; average, Is. 6d. to Is. lOd. ; lambs' 2s. 2d. to 2s. B|d. Cape: good flocks, Is. Bd. to Is. lid.; average, Is. sd. to Is. 7d. East India : fair to good, B|d. to lOd. ; middling, 6d. to Bd. ; low qualities, 4d. to sd. Extract of a letter from Liverpool, dated 20th August, 1845: — " Ry. auction, yesterday;" tallow from £39 to £41 per ton ; hoofs, £6 15s. per ton ; bones, £6 ss. per ton ; 225. for 123 ox and cow horns, and 2|d to 2§ d. for ox apd cow hides, wet salted, but a little damaged ; hides, if sent wet, ought to be-earefollypnt up/ and well^sattedi In good condition they . are worth 3|d. per lb. . TExtract of a letter dated Liverpool, 23d August, 18-I5 :—": — " Our Wool Sales commenced on the 21st, and as far a > Colonial is concerned, terminated last night. The attendance was very large, and the prices oblaiued fully equal to the l^gt London ones ; indeed, for middling qualities higher rates were paid. The weather, which bad previously been very bad, kept fine during the two days of the sales, and strange to say, it is snowing again to-day. There was a considerable quantity of Port Phillip wool sold, the.Qondition was good, and it averaged about Is. lt>d. It was chiefly combing, which was wanted, and commanded extreme prices. The Sydney wool was much better lhan last season. The Souths Australian wools *were not so well got up. The sales are considered to have gone off remarkably well."— s. M. Herald.

Destruction of Pirates. — By a letter from H. M. S. Agincourt dated Manilla, 3rd. September, we learn that the squadron, consisting of the Agincourt, Vestal^ Dadalus, Cruizer, Wolverine, Vixen r Pluto, and Nebtesis, had attacked, at Malloodoo Bay, the pirate chief Seriff Housman. The boats of the squadron succeeded in taking his forts, being three in number, and mounting altogejhefc'^flfteen guns j they destroyed his town, and aill-the goods they came across. The boats, ,were under, the fire of Jthe batteries, while : forcing the boom, upwards of fifty minutes, at little more than two hundred yards distance. .Our loss was six tilled and fifteen :'^bunded — two of the latter since dead. Mr. *Pyra,of the Vestal, was wounded in the back - part of the thigh by a_ grape shot, but not dangerously. Gibbard, a mate of the Wolverine, was killed. The loss in the Agincourt •lone was four killed and six wounded. The loss of the enemy could not be ascertained, as they carried the bodies immediately into the jungle, but it must have been immense. JT. wo Arab' chiefs are known to have been killed, and Seriff Housman himself to have' been carried off the field, severely wounded in the neck. The squadron were to sail for Hong Kong from Manilla the day afteT, namely, the 4th September. — Port Phillip Herald, December 11.