COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5534, 21 December 1878, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

The following are the duties collected at the Customs yesterday

The amount of Customs duties received at this port for the week ending December 10th was as

i MIUI O XKt U The dullnes incident to the approach of the Christmas holidays and the disinclination of the trade to buy anything beyond their actual wants in the face of the altered tariff which comes into operation on Ist January, leaves little to report in the import trade for the past week. A fair business in regular lines has been done. In colonial produce there has been & fair amount of trade doing, but prices show no improvement. Keg butter is selling at Bsd to 9d per lb for prime samples : bacon and hams are rather dull of sale at B}d per lb for best quality Canterbury cure ; flour continues unaltered in value, and sales of best brands of Oamaru and Canterbury mills are reported at £9 16s to £ll per ton ; market fully stocked with colonial, bub becoming bare of Adelaide flour, Wheat for fowls' feed in good supply at 3s lOd ; maize In moderate demand at 5s ; pollard, £6 to £6 10s per ton, in little demand at this season ; bran. Is 4d to Is 6d per bushel; potatoes, market supplied, and prices lower, sales of best Auckland potatoes at £lllos per ton. Messrs. Laery and Campbell held an unusually large sale at their yards, Nag’s Head, Cnba-street, on Saturday. There were just on fifty entries, including two miues, which fetched £1210s; horse, dray, and harness, £4O; hacks and carriage horses, varying from £6 to £25. Both buyers and sellers being-numerous the bidding was very spirited, and the sale continued until very late in the afternoon. The demand for draught horses is still noticed, and unbroken horses generally are also very much required.

BY TBLEGIIAPH. AUCKLAND SHAEE MAEKET.

AUCKLAND, Friday. Mr. Alexander Saunders reports:—Sales: New Zealand Insurance, 81a; South British Insurance, 07s; Colonial, 5s 3d ; Union Insurance, 14s; National. Insurance, 2Cs; Bank of Now Zealand, £23 ; National Bank, 73s ; Colonial, 523; Auckland Gas Company, £10; Loanj and Mercantile, £5 15s; Alburnia, 203 ; Kurunu! Hill, 7s; Eoyal Oak, 7s; Thames, 30s. DUNEDIN, Friday. Mr. Bradshaw reports: Bank of New Zealand, £23 5s ; National, 70s; Colonial, 503; New Zealand Insurance, 853;'Standard, 193: Union, 143 6d; National, 255; Colonial, ss. CHEISTGHURCH, Friday. The drought ha 3 been severe on crops on light soils, but She rains of last night will improve our harvest prospects considerably. Breadstuffs have not altered much. Wheat h.s a firm feelin,' at 4s 3d to 4s 6d; flour, £lO to £11; feed oats, 4s 3d, itocks vory low; hams and bacon, BJd; butter, 9d to lOil; cheese, 7*d. A local firm has sold to a Peruvian house one thousand bushels of wheat; the price has been withheld. Several largo sales have since been made at lower prices. Stocks are therefore greatly reduced. TIMAEU, Friday. This is the slackest time of tho year for transactions in cereals. Little Is now left in farmers hands. In wheat a few parcels have changed hands at a considerable reduction on the prices ruling a few months ago. The oat market is rather bare, but as the new crop is expected in about a month purchases are only made on the smallest scale. There Is no demand for export. There is no barley in the market. Flour, owing to no export orders, is dull of sale. Bran and sharps are in fair demand. Wheat is quoted at 3a 8d; oats, 3s 7d fo 3s 9d; flour, £10; bran and sharps, £6. Potatoes are vory scarce; old have been sold hero as high as £l4 per ton. LONDON MAEKET EEPOET. The National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, In their circular, dated London, Nov. 7,1873, report as follows ; Wool.—During the last fortnight tho wool market has remained exceedingly quiet, and no transactions of any importance have taken place. Tho quotations therefore aro merely nominal. The reports from tho manufacturing districts in this country, and also those from France, continue to be of an unsatisfactory character, in fact, the woollen trade generally may be said to bo in a depressed state; aggravated by the general want of confidence instilled by the recent financial difficulties, and by tho apprehension of renewed complications with regard to the settlement of the Eastern Question. Arrivals for sales commencing 19th inßtant:—New South Wnles and Queensland, 23,312 bales; Victoria, 18,355 do ; South Australia, 14,215 do; Western Australia, 373 do; New Zealand, .12,281 do ; Tasmania. 193 do; Cape, 49,192 do: total, 108,921 bales. Old stock about 50,000 bales. Flax.—Manilla has continued to decline, fair current now offering at £22 per ton. For New Zealand there is no enquiry and scarcely a market, as it has almost entirely gone out ol consumption. Our quotations are nominal. Good to fine clean New Zealand £2l to £22, fair half-dressed £l9 to £2O. Stock of New Zealand 146 tons, against 172 tons last year. Deliveries last ten months 220 tons. Wheat. —With liberal supplies from all quarters, our market continued depressed for,a fortnight after tho Issue of our last report, prices inclining more and more in buyers' favor. About that date, however, a reaction set in, caused by a falling off in American iihlpments, and small deliveries by the home trade. Buyers, being convinced that prices had reached ft safe level, have bought much moro freely tho last fow days, and a large consumptive business has been dono at 2s to 3s, per quarter advance from the lowest point. - .New Zealand wheats, after declining to 42s to 445, ox store, for good quality, havo come into request owing to the ncarcity of English, and havo participated fully in tho advance. Wo now quoto them at 45s to 4<]s and an exceptionally flno parcel might perhaps leallso 47s per 49Glbs. Australian wheat Is in bettor supply and noils at 503 to 02s per 4961bs according to quality. Flour.—New Zealand is worth 28s to 29s Od; and superfine Adclaido 345. Tallow. —Tho unsettled state of commercial affairs since our last issuo on the 9th ultimo, has had a depressing influence on tho tallow market, which has boen very flat during the past month, with little business doing In Russian either speculatively or for consumption. Prices have declined fully Is per cwt, tho present quotations for T. C. being 36s on tho spot and for delivery all the year. Although Australian tallow has been in moderate demand, prices havo also declined to a similar extent, tho present value of good to line mutton being 37a to 38s, and fair to fine beef tallow 35s to 3Cs per cwt, and although those figures aro low, with a large home supply, wo sco nothing in prospect at present to bring about any permanent improvement.

£ s. d. Spirits .. .. 216 2 10 Wine .. .. 21 12 10 Tobacco 25 10 0 Tea .. 9 10 0 Cigars .. ..3 0 3 Sugar .. .. 57 13 9

£ s. a. Weight .. 41 16 0 Ad valorem .. 08 19 11 Other duties .. 6 14 6 Total £451 6 1

under: — £ s. d. Spirits .. 1011 0 6 Cigars.. .. 135 1 3 Tobacco .. 317 17 C Win® .. .. 130 14 0 Beer .. .. 123 11 3 Tea .. .. 50 5 6 Sugar.. .. S34 13 1

£ s. d. Goods by weight .. 721 0 11 Ad valorem .. 1001 9 8 Other duties.. 309 10 4 Light dues, shipping, &c, .. 201 10 6 £4375 15 0