COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5217, 11 December 1877, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

The following are the duties collected at the Customs yesterday

BY TELEGRAPH. TIMARU, Monday. Messrs. Jones and Hart's stock report for the week is as follows Cattle in fair demand at £9 to £12195; prime store cattle in good demand; heifers, £5 5s to £fl2s Gd; yearlings, £3 Us to £4 ss; calves, £1 3s to £2 17a (id; milch cows not saleable: stock, £7 6s to £9 10s for good milchers. Property and Farms—Sales during the week realised high prices. Heavy draught horses, £4B to £GO: medium, £39 to £47; light, £23 to £3O; hacks, £7 to £3l IDs. LONDON WOOL MARKET. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency have received the following telegram : _ London, November 29. The wool sales opened at the level of the last sales on November 13. The quantity offered comprises about 190,000 bales. Competition is decreasing, and the market is weaker. The Continental market is poor. The principal decline is in cross-bred, medium, and inferior. For scoured, the market is easier, hor superior, combing, and washed, the market is unchanged. Holders demand higher rates. Up to date 70,000 bales have been sold. Sales close on the 19th December, The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company’s circular of the 18th October thus refers to the wool market:—The third series of colonial wool sales for the present year, which commenced on 14th August, were concluded on 2nd inst. The arrivals available and the quantities catalogued

are as follow: Available Quantities arrivals, catalogued. Bales. Bales. New South Wales and Queensland.. .. •• •• 67,7.07 60,873 Victoria 81,033 77,418 South Australia .. .. 17,406 10,726 ■Western Australia .. .. 3,010 4.117 Tasmania .. •• •• 10,090 10,070 New Zealand .. .• •• 78,900 70,030 Cape of Good Hope .. .. 48,107 43,086 Total 303,718 295.529

Of the former about 21,000 halos went Into consumption direct from ship's side. Not more than 115,000 bales have been taken for export. Taking into consideration the still unsold portion of withdrawn and unoffered wools during the three past series, amounting in the aggregate to about 72,000 bales, the closing sales of the year are expected to comprise an available total of nearly 180,000 bales, as compared with 205,561 bales for the corresponding period in 1576. The sales recently concluded haye resembled in several particulars tlio series by which they were immediatelv preceded. In both a protective policy was followed by holders, whereby not only was the quantity available for disposal limited to an aggregate of about 300,000 bales, but a further limitation took place by withholding a proportion of the total which might bo offered publicly by withdrawing certain lots when the offers made for them at auction were not equal to the limits affixed by those who were entrusted with their disposal. The result of this policy was in botli series of an uniform character. At the opening of each Hie supplies brought forward were barely sulllcient io salisfy the immediate wants of consumers, and prices in consequence hardened. This rise in value induced more extended offerings in the dally catalogues, which caused prices to rule rather in buyers' favor. As a natural sequel to this downward tendency came the increase of demand from those whose consumptive wants had not been previously supplied, resulting in a return to a higher level, and ensuring at the close of each series an increase of competition and enhanced rates. In one point, however, the two series of sales exhibited a very marked difference While in the former the foreign section of the trade were the chief operators, in the latter the larger proportion of supplies was absorbed by home buyers. The reason for this variation in result seems to lie in the fact that in the earb'er series the proportion of wool suitable tor foreign requirements was greater, and that during the currency of the latter the existing political difficulties in France, while more pronounced, were still unsolved. The low value reached by wools of domestic yrowtb, coupled with the iluines's of trade at the leading manufacturing centres of Great Britain, induced English and Scotch buyers to operate with great caution during tile earlier series of tiie year. While hi the third series a more confident feeling of prospective improvement in the export trade, added to a slightly higher level of prices for domestic wool, caused Home operators to supply their wants more freely. In doing so, however, they were not eager purchas»rs of the coarse descriptions of imported growth, the turn of fashion leading rather to the purchase of the liner or lighter qualities of cross or half-bred wools, whether scoured, washed, er greasy. The protective policy of holders exhibited throughout the second and third series of sales, has been, it will have been observed, of a twofold character. The relation between supply and demand having been carefully gauged by importers, it was deemed prudent by their representatives to limit the quantities of fresh arrivals for any one series. But this relation was further controlled either by the withholding of wools available for disposal, or by their being catalogued and withdrawn under offers not commensurate wi.h the sale limits. Any marked development of the last named course of action may defeat the desired object, involving as it may a grave departure from the rules which have hitherto governed the disposal of colonial wools by public competition in this market- This contingency ought not to be lost sight of by those in the various colonies at whose instance the control by sale limits has been adopted. Since the close of the auctions there has been a moderately good demand by private sale, and a fair quantity lias changed hands at unaltered rates. Although this inquiry, coming as it has done equally from Yorkshire and the Continent, points _ to no diminished consumption of'our staple, there is some reason to believe that in the Home districts business is hardly so good as it was a short time ago. The arrivals to date for the fourth series are 87,687 bales.

The market for all descriptions of hemp continues dull, and manilla has declined 10s. per ton from the rates current at the date of our last issue via San Francisco. Other kinds are similarly affected. For New Zealand hemp there have been no inquiries, and we have no transactions to record.

Spirits 400 U 0 Ale (balk) .. 17 10 0 0 7 4 Weight .. 30 4 11 Tobacco 43 10 0 Ail valorem .. 80 8 9 Tea 70 18 0 11* 14 0 Ale (bottled).. 8 8 9 Total . £785 10 3