COMMERCIAL.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 4, Issue 177, 18 December 1880, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

Samoa Times Office, Friday Evening. Jiusincss since our Ins! r. ;n.rt has steadily become worse, nml we believe we are mrreet iu stntiug that at im time during thr last tjn years has there been such a state uf stagnation in trade in this Grouji as that now existing. The worst feature in connection with this prevailing depression in business is, tliat there is no prospect of anv alleviation of its causes. The contondh)<>native parties in the (iroup so.-m pnrtieulorly embittered against each other in tiepresent war, and are each evidently determined td make iliis struggle for ascendancy a final one. So long as this state of affair's exists there is therefore, no hope of any improvement in trade. On Wednesday Mr. J. K. V. Alvord lield en miction sale 'of household fu .... and working plant of Mr. Hetlig, I I mith. who is giving up business lure and returning to Germany. Hidding was slack, and a ;• csideiable numbers of lines were pasted in. The sale of pmids. &q„ saved from the wreck of the brigantino Active, advertised ' for Thursday, was postponed till yesterdav '' 0:1 account of the ineleiiioncvof the woathor. > The sun having ngiiiu shone out, Mr. Alvord 1 took tho hammer yesterday at 111 a.m. and cmreedi'd in getting through a largonumhcr 1 of lines. Fair attendance of buvors, hut in , harmony with the dull times the bidding was . weak. ■Latest London advices report, the copra market dull. First-class (inalitv quoted a' : £l7 Ills. i ! ,

long li t tel- i' )uililislu-. 1 from Jean Buie, "'ll" 'mis Just been released lr.,iii prison, reiterating the truth of tin; statement lu; made .lufin" tin' Tiehhorne trial respecting tin' ljai'(|in' ()s]nvv, of which he was steward at, the lime tin; Bella men were nicked up. ][e will, he says, if spared, he able to prove it by taels. Witnesses, he declared, were bribed against him at his trial ; hut he will yet confound his enemies. He he- : ileves the log-book of the Osprey is still in ami that probably some of , the crew are still alive. I A very singular oocniTenee took place in a house in ('liftonville, Brighton, the other day. It appears that Haines were discovered in the centre of tin; drawingroom, and an investigation of tin; cause revealed the fact that a table had he, tt set on lire in conseipienee of the cover becoming ignited by the sun’s rays, which had been concentrated through the mediant I a decanter ~f water, !•’■ m> '!v the .|i-’overv was made he-