BLENHEIM BARLEY MARKET. BLENHEIM, January. 22.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 24

BLENHEIM BARLEY MARKET. BLENHEIM, January. 22.

The barley market is not yei fully opened. Buyers are offering ss, but farmers are asking iox 5s 6d and over.

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S CABLE-

WELLINGTON. January 27. The High Commissioner cabled from London on the 25th January : — Mutton. — The market is quiet. Stocks of .New Zealand on hand are light, and prices are maintained. Current quotations: Canterbury, 3|d; North Island, 3Jd; Australian, 2ia; River Plate, 3d. The lamb market is steady, and fair business is doing. Stocks of Australian lamb' on. hand heavy, and are widely distributed among agents, who are pushing sales, 4Jd being quoted. ' New Zealand lamb supplied by the Mamari averaged 6d. The beef market i<* quiet, but steady. Hindquarterff are quoted at 3gd, and forequarters At 22d. The butter market is very firm, end is greatly affected by the hot weather and bush fires. lv.ere is an average demand, and pros.pects are favourable. Choicest New Zealand, 119s ; . Australian, 117s ; Argentine, 117s ; Danish, 1255; Siberian, 112s. The cheese market is a shade weaker, and there is less demand. New Zealand choice makes 61s 6d ; coloured, 62s 6d per cwt. , Hemp. — The market is quiet, with small business doing, and -is likely to remain for some time at present quotations. There is oo speculation at present. Current quotations: Good fair grade on spot; • £28; fair grade on spot, SHI ; ' fair current Manila on spot, £29 10s ; January-March shipments, good fair grade, £28; fair, £27; fair current Manila, £29. The stocks held on the Ist January amounted, to .731 tons.

There is no alteration in the cocksfoot seed market- since last week. . i -f

Current quotations for kauri gum : Ordinary to fair three-quarter scraped, 165s per cwt ; fair uali-.s<v'-v ICJ i iOss; brown, fair half to

■ three-quarter scraped, 92s 6d; brown pickings, common to good, 555 , bush, fair to good pale , and amber scraped, 1555. The stocks in London on the Ist January amounted to 628 i tons. ■ The wool market is steady, with a. fair business doing. THE FROZEN MEAT MARKET. NAPIER, January 23. The C.C. and 15. Company. London, cable that the frozen ni-sat market continues very weak. There is no improvement in prices. THE BUTTER MARKET. AUCKLAND, January 24. The period of dry weather has materially affected the output of butter from the Aucki land province, and to-day there were in store j for export 11,487 boxes, or 237 tons, against ■ 14,036 boxes, or 224 tons, a fortnight ago, , or a drop of 2549 boxes, or 63 tons, inside 14 days. The export, however, compared with the corresponding period of last year, shows • an increase, as the shiunient at this time j last year totalled 10.119 boxes. With the drop in quantity prices are going up, and ! butter is now woith from 120s to 121s per cwt for the prime qualities on the London market, and the shipment for the fortnight ended to-morrow is estimated to be worth or about £7000 more than the same quantity would have been worth at the opening of the season. ] THE HEMP MARKET. j (From Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, January 23. J In consequence of the low price now beiae obtained for hemp, several flaxmills in South Westland have been compelled to close down. At the request of several flaxmillers on the Coast, the- Hon. Mr Guinness, M.P., wired to Sir Joseph Ward to ask him to instruct th» High Commissioner in London to cable out ' in his quotations not only the price of flax, J but the approximate amount of fldx held in , London Sir Joseph replied that he w.ould \ be pleased to carry out the suggestion. WEIGHT OF CORNSACKS. WELLINGTON, January 23. To-night's Gazette fixes the weight of grain sacks at 2001b. PROPOSED NELSON FREEZING WORKS. NELSON, January 22. The freezing works project is being enthusiastically supported, and so far shares to the value of about £12,000 have been taken up. Several parcels have been subscribed in . Wellington and jChristchurch. The company ' proceeds to allotment in February. COCKSFOOT CROP. The Banks Peninsula cocksfoot crop shows a shortage of 14,617 sacks, the total available crop being 53,229 sacks of riddled seed. All the seed is bright and fairly clean, and I weighs from 111b to 14lb per bushel.

CHRISTCHURCH MAKKETS. CHRISTCHTJRCH, January 24. Wheat is offering in small lots, and the grain is on the whole of very good quality, and much better than was anticipated. Some samples are shrivelled, as is only natural among the early threshed lots off light lands. The price has now apparently settled down for the time being at 4s 3a, for which a number of lots have been purchased for milling and for fowl wheat, for shipment to the Worth Island and West Coast. The largest sale reported is of 1200 bushels of Tuscan at 4s 6d. The demand for oats is not quit© so keen. Immediate orders -ai c being filled, and quotations from the south for old oats and offers of new season's crop for forward delivery are restricting operations. A line of 4000 bushels of duns has been taken at 2s 3d, and 2300 bushels of Gartons at 2s 2d at country stations. Light feed is selling as low as 2s. Barley suitable for malting is selling freely at 4s 9d to 5s 6d, according to quality. Only a few samples of cocksfooit have yet

been seen. For a small parcel of good seed 5d was offered and refused. Ko business has yet been done in new chaff, for which £3 at country stations is ofiered.

OAMARU MARKETS. CFaoji Otjb Owk Ccbeespondent.)

OAMARU, January 26. The only new wheat •gffering in Oamaru yet is from South Canterbury, but millers prefer to await developments before operating, and no sales are reported. Reports as to the crop in North Otago vary a good deal, some asserting that it has been shrivelled by the recent heat, and others that it has not suffered fit all. It will rrobably be found, as previously reported by ir>e, that any depreciation of the returns is confined to wheat grown on light land or sewn very late- Winter wheat and that growing on heavy land is likely to yield quite up to expectations.

Mosj of the oats have now been cut, and a number of crops have been threshed. The samples shown in town so far are generally light, and some of them a little green in colour. Ono sale is reported to have been mad© at 2s at a country station, but the market cannot be said to have opened yet. Old oats ar© still going out of store to satisfy demands for feed at 2s 4d to 2s 6d, and one sals was recorded at 2s 4d, f.0.b., for shipment.

A iew samples of barley, light in weight | though fair in colour, have been shown, with- j out bupiress resulting. '

Potatoes are in good supply at up to 5s per cwt.

Pastures have suffered very severely in the last few weeks in spite of one or two little shower 3, and many farmers testify that grass is little, i f any, better just now than it wa3 sit the same time last year, when the drought was doing its worst.

t ! GRAIN AND PRODUCE REPORTS 1 Messis Donald Raid and Co. (Ltd.) reJ port: — We held o\ir weekly auction sale of grain and produce at our stores on Monday. TheTe was a fair attendance of buyeTS, and, although competition was not keen, most of the lines on offer found buyers at quotations. Values ruled as under : — Oats. — G-ood to best feed lines are in fair C demand for export, and, in the absence of l heavy stocks, late quotations are well nrain- . tamed. Milling quality has little inquiry ex- » , oept for shipment as feed. Quotations: I ! Prime milling, 2s 3*d to' 2s 4d ; good to b&st » , feed, 2s 2d to 2s 3d; inferior to medium, 2s t 1 to 2s lid per bushel («t*ks extra). , Wheat. — In milling quality there* is little v , business being done. Fowl wheat " has bsl ) come, so scarce and values improved to such an extent that batter prices can be_got than, millers are prepared to give. Quotations: Good whole wheat, 4si lOd to ss; medium, 4s 7d to 4s 3d; broken and cttunuaged, 4s 3d l to 4s 6d per bushel (sacks extra). Potatoes. — The market is beirg more fuJlv supplied, and only freshly dug lots in b si condition are* readily dealt with. Quotations : Best kidneys, £4 15s to £5 ; choice, to £5 10s; medium to good, £i to M 10s; inferior and stale, £3 to £2 15s per ton ! (Backs included). Chaff. — Fair supplies of good to prime 1 oaten sheaf have- been coming forward, and l r ,' have moderate demand at prices about on a level with late values. Medium and inferior lots are very difficult to deal with. Quotations: Best oaten Sheaf, £4 to £4 2s 6d; choice, £4 5s to £4 7s 6d; medium to good. ' £3 10s to £3 15s; light and inferior, £3 to £3 5s per ton (bags extra). Straw. — The market is fairly well supplied. Quotations: Oaten, £2 2s 6d) to £2 7s 6d; wheaten, £2 to £2 5s per ton (pressed!). THE HIDE MARKET. MELBOURNE, January 23. Stoivfc and heavier medium ar© very firm. Kips are dull. CLEARING SALE. Messrs Donald Reid and Co. (Ltd.) report having held a clearing sale on account of the trustees in the estate of the late James Smellie, on the 21st inst., when, owing -to tho property having been sod, everything was offered for sale to the highest bidder. The day was very fine, and there was a grand turnout of neighbouring farmers, dairymen, and ethers from surrounding districts. The stock of horses, implements, etc., had done good service on the place, it being one of the earliest ocoupied in the district. The cows were a nice lot of dairy cattle, and in capital condition, but with some two; or three exceptions they were past this season's .profit. I They all secured fair competition, and sold xat fair values. The houses (with cm© escep-

tion), although" of gooa sorfs, were rather old, and did not secure muoh bidding. Implements, of which there was a large assortment i of useful faun tools, all found buyers. Dairy cows sold at £3 to £6; bull at £4 ss; horses ' sold -to £17; implements, etc., cleared at full values. DUNEDIN HORSE SALEYARDS. 1 Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. Teport having he'd their annual harvest horse sale I on Saturday last, when they offered an entry cif about 100 draught, spring-cart, and j light harness horses. There was an excellent attendance of the public, and amongst them were several biiyera on the lookout for young, active draughts fit for immediate hard woik; consequently good sorts fresh from the country met a good sale, and sold at up to £47. The consignment from the ! Mount Royal Estate was put cm the market in tip-top condition, and elicited keen competition, and every horse changed hands at satisfactory values. *■ The shipment froni V*2 iS"orth Island was all on the small side for our market, and for it the »ale was rather dragging, and business hard to effect. The demand for heavy spring-carters was good, and all young upstanding animals found new owners at prices ranging up to £33 10s. Good young useful harness sorts were also inquired for, and realised full values. The demand for young, active, useful horses of all classes at the present time is good, and whenever such fresh from the country are offered for sale they always realise full rates. We quote: Superior young draught geldings at from £45 to £50; extra good do (prize-winners), at from £50 to £55 ; superior young draught nfares, at. from £50 to £6tf; medium draught mares and geldings, at from £30 to £40; aged do, at from £15 to £20; well-matched carriage pairs, at froni £70 ,to £100; strong springvan horses, at from £25 to £30; milk-cart and butchers' order-cart horses, at from £18 fa £25; light hacks, at fr,om £8 to £13; extra good hacks and harness horses, at from '£13 *o £25; weedy "and aged do, at from £5 to £7.

OTAGO FARMERS' HORSE BAZAAR. The Olago Farmers' Co-operative Association of New Zealand report: — We held our usual weakly sale of horses in our bazaar on Saturday last, when we had an entry of GO horses, comprising heavy cart geldings, good sorts of plough mares and geldings. Several of the mares, showing a lot of quality and being suitable for stud purposes, realised good prices, as did all the young and sound clifty geklnigß. Vanners ; ■were also in fair demand, ana all from four to six years old met with capital competition, s^-Hg to fresh quarters at very satisfactory prices. Up-to-weight hackneys were not plentiful, and for a considerable jfcinie have not been in gioat demand. However, a few of our wool kings were present on Saturday, and with these -gentlemen half a dozen really goocf sorts could have been, easily placed. The whole of our » country consignments, which constituted practically t'ae whole of our entry, came from Pukeuri, Mount Gowrie, Sutton, Middlemareh, Clutha Island, Stirling, Mi.ton, Berwick, Wpst Taieri, North-East/ Valley, and' Peninsula, and the young and sound mares and geldings met with capital competition, and were all disposed of under the hammer at very satisfactory figures. Next Saturday we shall hold our harvest horss sale, and, in. addition to provincial entries,, we shall offer 17 four and five-year-old spring-carters on account of Mr J. E. Walker, of Bulls. North Island. We quote: Good useful draught mares and geldings (young and sound), from £35 to £45; lighter sorts and older. £23' to £d 3; heavy Lorry pair, from £80 to £100: useful plough . mares and geldings, £30 to £40; pedigree Clydesdale mares, to £150; good sorts of Clydesdale mares, suitable for stud purposes and general farm work, £40 to £47; carriage pairs, £30 to £100; springcarters (good sorts), from £20 to £32; upstanding buggy mares and geldings, from £15 to £22; hackneys, from £12 to £18; lighter sorts, from £7 to £12. PROPERTY SALES. Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. (Ltd.) report having sold by public auction, at their rooms on Thursday afternoon, Mr ThomasJ Taylor's Waipahi farm, known as the Hut Paddcck, comprising ahout 320 acres of good arable land. There was a large attendance of the public, and after spirited competition the property was knocked down to Mr Joseph -Turiibull, of Waipahi, at the satisfactory price of £5 5s per a.cx&. ;