COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5616, 29 March 1879, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

The following are the dude* collected at the Customs yesterday:— i* a Spirits .. .. 122 17 7 Sngar .. - JJ ® g Wine .. ~ 40 0 Weight 12 W 9 Tobacco .. 61 5 0 Ad valorem- .. 15 16 6 Clear!.. .. 16 10 0 Other duties .. 6, 6 O Ale (bulk) .. 12 10 0 Tea .. .. 710 8 Total .. £264 17 I The amount of Customs duties received at this port for the'wook ending March 27 was £3364 16s. The import trade of the past week has been dull, unimportant, and unmarked by the sale of any lines w, rth recording or indicating any change in values. Brandies and our stocks of spirits In bond generally are heavy, but sales being merely reta 1 prices are unadeeted. Best brands of bottled ales and stouts are Arm at 10s 9d to 12s. Cement meets with more inquiry for outside orders, and is worth 16s 6d to 17s per barrel. Sperm candles, full stocks, which move off slowly at 9Jd for Price's: BJd for foreign make Kerosene Is in moderate demand at 1s lid to 2s 3d according to flashing point test. Sugars remain at for XW. £4110s; IC, £39 10s; C, £25 to £3O per ton d p Full stocks of tea at unaltered rates. Adelaide flour is firm at £ls per ton; stocks very light. In colonial produce we report dull trade and heavy stocks. Butter in kegs is in rather better demand owing to, the dry weather, which checks the production of fresh butter, and is worth for 100 1 demand 10}d to lid per lb for prime cure, but there is no Innuiry for shipment. Bacon and hams are In rather short Biioplv Just now, and are B}d to 9d per lb for sou ndpa reels, cheese dull of sale at B*l. Flour —Overstocked with Canterbury and Oamaru flour, and although holders, are asking from £lO to £lO 10s per ton for certain brands wo hear of sales at £8 10s to £9 103. Oats are unaltered from our l.st week s report and worth 3a Sd. full stocks; bran, Is per bushel; pollard £5 10s to £6 per ton: potatoes In full supply at £4 10a to £5 per ton. Timber overstocked, a cargo of sawn timber ei Star of the Sea, was sold under the hammer by Mr O, Thomas on March 20 at 8s per 100 ft.

BY IELKGRAPB. CHRISTCHURCH,’ Friday. Grain and produce quotations are fair. Average quality wheat at 38 to 3s 2d, and good, well-filled grain at 3a 4d to 3a4sd; the former for milling and the latter for seed samples. Some business has been done in flour during the week, for export, at £8 to £8 JK but there is not that active demand that millers like. Oats do not show any sign of improvement; the export Misiness is quiet, and for local wants there is more than enough offering; sales have been made during the week at 2s 6d to 2s 3d for feeding kinds, and 2s 9d to 2s lOd for milling sorts. Barley continues without much alteration ; buyers are giving from 6s to 6s 6d, according to sample. Grass seed does not show any sign of Improvement, and buyers are very shy; It Is well known that stocks are not excessive. and on this account it is hard to account f for the disinclination to operate. Butter 1s again duller, aud has been offering very freely in lines ; during the week, wo have heard of several transactions at 9d to lOd, f.o.b , being carried through. Cheese remains, as last quoted, at 6d ; the export demand is very poor. Hams and baco are in better demand ; stocks are exceedingly light, and will do more than meet the new enro. No change in prices is reported, and we repeat' previous quotations of Bd. . MELBOURNE MARKETS. The following is Messrs Goldsbrough and Co.'s report for the week ending March 12 Wool.—We catalogued 650 bales for our sale to-day consisting chiefly of inferior Jots and cross-bred. There was a good attendance and full competition, but prices were not so firm as at last sale, the English news having evidently had a depressing "fleet. We sold Inferior to average greasy at 6d to 9jd, and ordinary scoured up to I7d. Sheepskins.—We report a steady market throughout the past week, the prices realised being about similar to those ruling lately. There is a full supply offering. Butchers* gn-en pelts realised up to 2s 3i each ; do dry do. Is 9d each ; dry skins inferior to medium. 8d to*6d per lb ; do, medium to superior. 5d to 6sd per lb Hides.—We have disposed of a large number of hides during the week at satisfactory prices, vix : Ox -hides, average sizes, fr tn 15s t • 24s »-ach ; cow hides, do. 10s to 14s each; Victorian salted, 2idtoS}d per lb; New Zealand do. 3d to Ip r lb. Kangaroo Skins —Large, fresh skins, in gord condition are sale b!a at from 71 to 10 I per lb ; Inferior and me 'ium lots are almost unsaleable at prices up to 61 per lb. Tallow.—We submitted a full catalogue at auction yosterdav. the bulk of which was cleared at quotations The tone of the market is, however, dull, and difficulty was experienced in reaching valuations. We quote :—Mutton, from £27 15s to £3O 10s per ton ; heef, £25 15s to £2B per ton ; mixed, £2l to £27

per ton. Wheat.—At our sale today we catalogued 2789 b*gs. There was a good attendance of buyers and competition brisk. 2265 bags being old at auction and by private contract since our last report. We quote prime seed, ss: prime milling, fr m 4s Bjd to 4s ftjd ; medium to good. 4s 4d to 4s 7d; and Inferior, from 3s Id to 3s lid per bushel. Oats.— Since our l-ist report we have quitted 544 bags at tho following prices :—Good seed up to 4s; good to prime feed, 3s Sd to 3s lOd; medium to good, 8s 4d to 3s 7d; and inferior, from 2s 9d to 3s per bushel. Flour.—Good country brands are saleable at £lO sterling per ton. Pollard —Good pollard, manufactured in tho Wimmera district, is saleable at 13jd per bushel. Bran.—All coming forward finds ready purchasers at advanced rates, and we quote really good at 12Jd per bushel. Barley.—At our sale to-day wb offered several parcels. and sold t ape at from 3s 7sd to Ss 8d: inferior milling. from 3s KM to 5s 6d : good malting, 6s to 6s 2d; and prime, up to 6a 9d per bushel.