COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 16 August 1880, Page 2

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

ArTG'TION"UKr*-' RKPOins. Mr. George (freenfield reports that lie held a sale of furniture, fowls, &c., at his auction mart on Saturday. The attendance was small, bat tho bidding was fairlj spirited. 25 pair fowls fetched 3s per pair : 12 pair ducks 5s per pair : 3 pair turkeys, 12s per pair: I washing boiler, 5Ss; ana furnitare at very satisfactory prices. He alao held a sale of horses at 2 o clock ; the attendance was again small, but the bidding was pretty brisk. CHUISTCHUIiCH. Saturday's Press reports"Before proceeding to review the transactions of the week, it may n'>t be out of place to our readers the opinion of American millers on the transactions of the '" grain ring in that country, as set forth by the lion. Geoige Sain in his address to the National Association of American Millers, on the Ist June last, at Cincinnati : —" Collateral with the ill-effects that may come on us from the railway monopolv, is the subject of grain gambling, which "has been so terribly detrimental to the producing and milling interests of the country the past year. If any of you coald suggest any means, legislative or other, by which q stop could be put to it, yon would benefit the world. The ' ring' that was so successful in manipulating the wheat crop of IS7S. have worked it so much more scientifically this year, that while putting money into their pockets they have certainly taken ten as much from the in the Lnited States, by compelling the European consumer to seek other grain producing conntnes that were willing to market their surplus at a fair price. You all know that while our exports of flour are some fifty per cent, greater than they ever were before, the millers' bank account, as a rnle, is somewhat more attennated than it was a year ago. I see no remedy except in these operators losing so mnch that they will turn their attention to something else. The rumors of the 'collapse' of the 'American Ring, _ current in the newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, have not been well founded. I doubt if thev do not hold to-day as much wheat as they did at the commencement of the season, and if they have not made ten times the amount by the scientific process of * milking they practised this year, than thev did by their ' bnll dog policy of last.'" The foregoing remarks are so much to the poiut that comment is useless. We shall, in all probability, see a repetition of the scientific process referred to during the season now opened. Business has been quiet, bnt rates are firmly maintained. In wheat several small parcels have been sold at up to 4s for real I v trood milling samples. Flour Las had a fair" share of attention at 1,10 10s. but millers are disinclined to back large orders at the price. Oats show some good sized sales of milling quality at Is Gd to Is 7d, but feeding sorts are quiet at Is 3d. £&rley quotations are more or less nominal, sellers beinz disinclined to accept ruling rates. A fair business has been done in fotatoes at 22s 6d to 25s at country stations, uyers as a rule being very particular about quality. Pain." produce is without quotable alteration, and the same may be said of hams and bacon.