Commercial.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 223, 9 May 1872, Page 5

Commercial.

Dunedin, May 4. Transactions in grain have nut been heavy this week. The late unfavorable weather has prevented the threshing and the delivery of the grains, and tne paroels now awaiting shipment are comparatively light. Prime milling wheat is wanted. The town millers are giving 4s 9d for parcels delivered in Dunedin. Holders are looking for higher rates, but aa yet have not succeedad in obtaining any advance. In oats, the market has become exceedingly quiet ; there is not the slightest disposition to buy for shipment to Australia. Milling lots are worth Is lid, and feeding Is 9d. Malting barly finds buyers at 5s ; for feeding kind there is a market at3s6d. Potatoes, L 5. Flour is very firm at Ll2 in sacks, and Ll2 10s in bags. The town demand is §ood, and on country requirements there is an improvement. Oatmeal [it steady at Ll2 10« to Ll3. Pearl barley, L2O. Bran, scarcer, L 2 10s to L 2 15s. Polard, firm, at L 4 10. btraw, L 2 Bay, L3 los. Chaff, L3 lss.

A. Mercer reports for the week ending May 4:—Ketail prices only — Fresh butter, ia £lb. and lib. prints, best quality, Is per lb. ; second quality, lOd per lb. ; fr. sh butter in lumps, lOd per lb ; powdered and salted butter, lOd per lb; salt butter, in kegs, 9d per lb. The supply of fresh butter isjstill plentiful and prices remain the same ; still a slight tendency towards a rise is being felt : farmers are beginning to look for more from the shopkeepers. The stocks of salted butter are lighter and a fair demand exists for good samples. There is still an improvement observable in cheese and the quantity held in stock is much lighter. Best quality from 6d to Sd per lb ; second quality, 6d per lb. Side and rolled bacon is very plentiful, and selling from 9d to lOd per lb. In Colonial hams there is still a blisk trade doing at Is per lb. Eggs are still exceedingly scarce and much enquired after ; storekeepers are unable to meet the demand. This has not been the case for many years at this season ; and the price rangea ixom 2s 6d to 3s per doz.

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Gas in Invercargill. — "We are informed that at the last meeting of the Invercargill Town Council, Mr Stephen Hutchison submitted an offer to supply that town with gas at a maximum price of 20s per I 000 feet. An 111 wind, &c. — By the Southern Cross Me perceive two Auckland tradesmen have availed themselves of the gratuitors advertising of Mr Brogden's tenders for the construction of ballast waggons for Auckland copie.i from a Dunedin paper, and have sen* down tenders for the performance of the work here. ' Endowments. — Encouraged by ** , result of the action in reference to thY P? r * manent endowment of municipality ne ■ Cromwell Council now asks that si* lla J Pro-visionP rOvision should be made for hospitr* •. At tnft , last meeting of that body a r/° lut . WQ was adopted , requesting the conf^ce of mayors , to consider the expediency^ obtaining a permanent maintenance .«* endowment for i count rv hnsnitals in/«mneoboa with the ( municipal institution : The Wjbaxfer. — The rainfall on i Sunday in tl* Oamaru district was 115 i inches, so tfiat the probability is that the ] month's fetal will reach four inches. The . Kakanui was very high on Saturday and i Sunday— in fact impassable ; and we ( / tmes) j hear that on Sunday afternoon Messrs I Wheatly and Co.'s wool works were in j great danger of being swept away ; and that 1 there were four feet of water in Messrs 1 Anderson and Meuat's mill. ' ""Immigration. — Mr M'Leod, M.G, A., j for the Bay of Islands, who is intimately I connected with Nova Scotia, has made ar- < raugements with the Provincial Government ] of Wellington, to go to Canada at the close < of the next session of the Assembly and I obtain a aupply of immigrants for that Pro- a vince from Nova Scotia. He is to receive to a the extent of LIOO as passage money eacn t wav and a lump sum of L 365 for his ser- S vices Tt is stipulated that the immigrants g are to be landed in tbe Province within n twelve months or Mr M'Leod will be en- c titled to no further remuneration. a Our Forests. — A colonist has oon- c triVnited to the Australasian an article upon h "The Forests of New Zealand," in which n the following estimate appears :— •" It is no C( exaggeration to state that there are n 500 000,000 of kauri trees growing, in a „ healthy condition, in our forests, and each p on an average will produce 21b weight of gum f( annually, or 5,000 tons collectively, which, g valued at L 5 per toa, would amount to a L 250 000. It would thus appear that from p this source alone a quarter of a million ster- tl ling is added to the wealth of the colony every year without any cost of production, s1 anxiety, or labor on our part, and without tl in any way exhausting the 'source from c , whence such boundless wealth is derived. c: Another All England Eleven.— h That indefatigable cricketer Mr R. W. Wardell, ha* promulgated a scheme for in- j> viting another English eleven to the Polo- ' nies. He recommends a challen being sent home to the Marylebone eleven to play , aBC ies of matches in Australia to commence , at Melbourne next Boxing day ; offer the team passages per ocean steamer out, and via . Frisco home ; let them be the guests of the Melbourne club ; and, if the team includes professionals, pay each Ll5O per man. Mr Wardell points out the objection made by j" gentleman players to coming cut has „ been the dread of being mixed up in the show business, which would be .f. f overcome by issuing a challenge. There is , every probability of the proposal taking a practical form in Melbourne A New Way to Settle a Grog , Score.— A new way to settle a grog score, Q] although not calculated to assist the pub- g( lican in discharging his liability to the brewer, was brought under the notice of . the Thames Advertiser lately. AMr Peter . Guilfoyle paid to the local hospital the sum of lls 6d, because the landlord of the GokL-n j Fleece Hotel had stuck upon his bar on a black board— under the heading " grog score"- •' Guilfoyle, lla 6d" The hotd- ™ keeper afterwards wrote to the paper : — •' I shall be only too glad if the others on the q board wouH follow his benevolent example, .j as I never expect to receive the amounts j opposite their names, and the amounts gc would benefit the funds. I have erased Mr Peter Guilfoyle's name from the board, and re shall feel very great pleasure in doing the • same by the others for the same charitable .* purpose, when the amounts are paid in." Q - Theatricals in England. — It may bt interest some of our readers to know that hi Mr Akhurst has been very successful at el Home as an author of burlesque. Tbe bur- hi lesque he wrote for Astley's was drawing tr nouses when the last mail left, and the pro- m prietors, well pleased with the author's en- es deavors. presented him with an extra hun- ti dred guineas. Mr Harry Jackson, well la known in Dunedin, was to appear at the tl Gaiety ; and Louis Braham was singing with ci Moore's Minstrels at the Adelphi, where he ai v a great favorite. Barry Sullivan is the be rage in Scotland; while the Julia Ma' hews n< company was at latest dates playing to tc crowded houses in Dublin. Mr Henry di Talbot was performing at Belast. The » Colonies are promised an early visit from cc Mrs Scott Siddons, a tragic actress of con- fc siderable ability. v Sensational Literature. — The last *J batch of Nelson and Westland papers are notably journals of horrors. In the issues of seven or eight journals, extending over a period of ten days, we find six or seven ac- <rcounts of no less than thirteen fatal or other ' w accidents which have occurred recently with- g in the two districts in which the papers are jj published. Besides these there appear plea- p sant details of every accident, sudden death, „ or horror which has occurred wi hin the last two months in the colony (for these are all p carefully copied) so that the papers are well £, supplied with sensational news. When it is remembered that each paper caref >lly re- 8I produces accounts of not only all tbe local p but a'so colonial accidents, it may be understood that looking over Nelson and Westland j files is a remarkable oheerful work. The g Post say* it suggests the thought that sur- fl geons and undertakers must do well in that v part of the colony. j The Cromwell Reefs. — The Col- n dough Quartz Mining Company have had ' another crushing — tbe first since Christmas, a Tne yield is 105 ozs. 14 dwts from ninety- A four tons of stuff. Tbe reef looks well, and I can be worked at a profit, provided the tl water can be drained or lifted from the a workings. The levels are now at a depth P of 120 feet. All the stone and water are h now lifted from this depth by hand power, tl with an ordinary windlass. It will be inte- b resting to remark what steps this persever- a ing company will next take to provide for tl the effectual working of their mine Like h the reefs on the Oarrick, this reef has na- oi tural drainage — only requiring a cross cut to » be driven to render the workings dry. Seme if L 3600 have been already expended in open- H ing the workings and erecting machinery, ri and it now seems necessary to raise fresh y; capital, issue fresh shares, or borrow money fi on plant, to meet the expenses necessary for a: providing drainage of this wet lode. There b is not the slightest doubt but the property is * a valuable one, and well worthy of any fur- h ther outlay the director* or manager may g detrn expedient. a