COMMERCIAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10061, 1 February 1909, Page 4

COMMERCIAL.

HOME MARKETS. [By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] (Per Press Association-.) Received February 1, at 8.55 a.m. London, January 31. Consols, 83 5-16ths. Canterbury sheep, heavy, 3 9-16 d; River Plate beef, fores 2|d; the rest unaltered. Hemp—Dull; January-March," £24 10s. Wool—Good sale and keen competition for all sections of the trade; prices unchanged. The following are the average prices realised' for the fleece portions of the clips named, —"Waiau" "Gear" 9d, 'Matapiro" 9 id, "Ngatapa" 9id, "Ohawa" 9gd. There have been catalogued to-day 110,532 bales, of which have been sold 103,636 bales. Hides—Poor demand. Queensland 'heavy sd, medium s^d. light 4i.d. Leather —Quiet and unchanged-. Rabbits —Very firm, 21s being paid for Sydneys. Owing to the fog delaying delivery, there was a bare market. Wheat—l7,soo Adelaide January-Feb-ruary shipment sold at 36s and 7500 January at 375. Copra—Dull; South Sea neglected, £lB 15s. Antimony, £B, £9. Silver, 23-Jd. Copper—Spot, £SB 2g 6d ; three months, Electoolytic, £63 10s. Tin—Spot-, £124 ss; three months, £126 2s 6d. Lead, £l3 2s 6d. LOCAL MARKETS. 0-amaru Mail Office, Monday Afternoon. At this season of the year it is usual for merchants to find time liang heavy on their hands, as millers are awaiting the arrival of the new grain, and provide merely for their wants from one week to the other. This year merchants find things even more uninteresting than usual, for wheat is entirely cleaned up, with apparently not. a bag for sale, and no one wants oats except in lines so small as to make dealer's tired of handling them. Of course there is a demand for wheat-, and millers are anxious to secure good velvet, but it can't be provided in this district.. The Dunedin millers continue to grist the imported wheat, not- from preference, but because they can secure nothing else at the same money. The new season's oats have appeared in the North, and have reduced even further the value of the old grain, so that the sales made during last week of Gaitons at Is 8d to Is f.o.b., s.i., and second Duns at Is on the same terms could not be repeated now. There have been one or two lines of new oats trafficked in locally during the week, but they were small lots and it cannot lie said that there is at present a quotable market. Potatoes -go back in price with every fine day. The crop is a big one and supplies have swamped the Dunedin market, so that the price had receded at one time to £3 ss, but- recovered later in the week on account of the wet weather interfering with digging. Given a week of tine weather, potatoes would be a drug in the market, and would hardly pay for digging.

DUXEDIX HORSE SALE. Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. report as follows : —We had a very fair entry of horses forward for last week's sale, about two-thirds of them being draughts, mostly young, active plough sorts, and one-third stale and aged harness horses. The attendance was very good, both town contractors and farmers' being well represented, and amongst them were a number of buyers for really first-class lr; n.hts and strong upstanding spring-carters. As our entry did not include any very heavy animals suitable for lorry work, we have no high figures to quote, still, ccns.VJeniig the size of the horses, prices must ne considered very good. The demand, bf th privately and at auction, for young, useful draughts, is very keen, and v.rses <j> this description find ready sale it- tue pif.'fnt time. The market- is very bare of young horses of all classes. We rju. te: Superior young draught geldings, at from £45 to £SO: extra go<xl do (prize-wirti'-is), at from £SO to £55; superior yn.ing drai gbt mares at from £SO to £6O; n.ed'um draught mares and geldings, at ir?in £3O to £4O; aged do, at from £ls to £2O; well-matched carriage pairs, at from £7O to £100; strong spring-van horses, at from £25 to £3O : milk-cart and luichers' ordor-eart horses, at from £lB to £35; light hacks, at from £8 to £l3: eMra good hacks and harness horses, at Horn £ls to £25: weedy and aged do, at f:om £5 to £7.