COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4275, 2 December 1874, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

The latest reports from Hobarton state that the demand for potatoes has fallen off, and that the price had declined from £8 to from £6 10s. to £7, with the expectation of a lower market. The latest quotations for timber were the followingSawn timber, Bs. to Bs. Od, pei 100 ft.; palings, Ss. to 9s. per 100; 6ft., do, 9s, to 10s.; shingles, Bs. 6d. to 9s. per 1000; posts, 255. per 100; treenails, 10s. do; cart shafts. 2s, 3d. per pair. The demand for timber was very good. - SYDNEY WOOL MARKET. Messrs, Fanning, Griffiths, and Co.’s report, dated Sydney, November 20th, is as follows: — The general and not unreasonable anxiety, that, with the very large supplies for London May sales, the existing values must recede, has caused a quiet tone, and buyers show no inclination to operate on former rates. Svhat the state of the English market will be then, is of course uncertain, and we do not see what guarantee wool growers have of obtaining better prices than those offered now' in the colonial markets. It is perhaps as well to mention that direct shipments to the United States of America, and the increasing quantities now bought for Continental account, will probably relieve the London market; but from the same cause competition will also be somewhat affected, though the extended use of Australian wools in new countries may counterbalance any slackness in competition caused by direct shipments. Our own impression is, that at any rate for good wools we shall have less necessity than hitherto to look to any other market than the Australian to regulate value. Having carefully observed what has lately been done, and is now being done in most of the colonial markets, it is pretty clear that a direct trade with these colonies is attracting a large share of attention both in America and Europe, and, with the growing patronage of the most powerful, energetic, and practical wool-producers in Australia, we begin to think that its adoption will not require so much time as we at first anticipated. We w r ant, season by season, to have less anxiety and alarm of our supplies causing great fluctuations. To have numerous and permanent sources from which the consumer can obtain his raw material must in the highest degree be desirable, and conducive of prosperity, and it is only thus that we shall be safe from slight panics whenever a telegram comes flashing upon us from London. The magnitude of the trade opens an inviting field to every nation consuming Australian wool, and the President of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce, with a due sense of the importance in the change which is now taking place, has set a good example by inviting free intercourse, and as this port possesses all the advantages necessary to make it a depot for Australian wools, means will no doubt be vigorously employed to assist in onward progress, and some suitable wools will be sent to that market. Numerous other countries have expressed their determination of going into this trade, and even Italy reads the signs of the times correctly, and has found its way to the colonial markets for direct purchases. The quantity, it is true, is small; but the ready sale these wools will command, will doubtless eventuate in much larger shipments. The probability of a near change in the American commercial policy in the direction of free-trade in wool will also very materially alter the whole course of the wool-trade ; however, Australia is up and doing, and with the annually increasing number of extensive wool-stores, the colonial markets will be found well prepared. That there will be yet some formidable difficulties to overcome is of course manifest: but it is not the habit of Australians to be alarmed and deterred on this account, and in that fact lies the future greatness and prosperity of these colonies. From reliable advices received from the various wool-growing districts, it would seem that under the most favorable circumstances, the clip will hardly reach a proportionate increase when compared with last year. Happily, with the exception of Queensland, which suffers severely from dry weather, the season so far has been generally favorable, and there is reason to hope that the wool-growers may have the fortune of another good year. Auction sales at Sydney have lately been marked by some irregularity, and unfortunately a very large proportion of the lots offered proved more than usually burry and seedy, which arc almost unsaleable except at comparatively low rates. Average lots realise from lOd. to 10-kl., and well-managed, high-bred flocks, in the unwashed state, reached from 12d. to 13d. per lb. The selection in washed fleece has been somewhat better, and those kinds, possessing length of staple, clean and faultless, command attention and realise from 22d. to 23£d.; clothing, from 19d. to 21d. per lb. Of scoured, very few attractive lots have been lately submitted, but anything of good quality and condition sells at fair prices. Efforts arc now being made in Brisbane to establish weekly wool-sales, and the success already obtained in the other colonics leads the promoters to hope that their exertions will not bo in vain. BY TELEGRAPH . AUCKLAND, Tuesday. Mr. Alexander Saunders reports;—Sales; Bank of New Zealand, 360 a.; National Bank, 70s. ; Colonial Bank, 11s.; Fiji Bank, 625; Cd,; South British, 505.; Caledonian, 100 s. Buyers; National Insurance, 27a.; Bismarck, 4s. od.; Thames, 20s.