COMMERCIAL

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3062, 1 March 1892, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

The Waikato Times Office, Monday. AUCKLAND PRODUCE MAKKET. Messrs Bsam and Author's Weekly Retort.—Notwithstanding the break in the week caused by the Governor's departure, business has been exceedingly good, owing principally to large orders for the steamers Monowai and Ovalau, consisting of potatoes, unions, br.tter, and cereals. For this reason prices -A .wine produce have undergone a change. Pot itoes sufficiently Rood for .shipping are scarce, and have commanded an advance of about 7s per ton. ton. The demand f»r the next week or two will be confined bo local wants, and we do nut anticipate much change, in values. Onions : Export orders being filled and regular Southern shipments anticipated, l.rices must recede considerably, although m> has been obtained for prime local we expect lower prices to rule. A. shipment ]i«r Mararoa, rather prenn. realised £4 los. Cereal* are without quotable change. Fowlwheat has only come forward in small quantities, 30 values cannot be correctly gauged. A few lines of local Dun oats have been sold at Is !M to Is lid, and a specially good quality at 2s. 'Dairy pruduce : Prime fresh butter must be quoted a shade easier, although the average »t auction was only Jd under last week. Distributors generally report supplies more plentiful, and our own entries were larger. The demand for prime keg was beyond supply, and export orders could not be eatiHed under iM. Second quality has not been so eagerly asked for. Ha-ns and bacon : Trade almost entirely confined to Southern enre, for which the demand is steady. Cheese : Supplies and requirements about adjust, without alteration in price. Eggs are scarcer, and in strong request. Fruit: Supplies continue plentiful, particularly apples.so much being of inferior quality. The market can only be reported as languid, buyers exhibiting no desire to bid briskly. If growers studied quality more than quantity we are sure the increased returns would repay the extra labour incurred. Poultry: Demand was beyond supply on Friday. Our auction prices are as follows :—Hobarts. No. 1, £3 5a to £3 15s, and No. 2. £2 10« to £2 15s: Magnum Bornims, £3 10a; onions, £5 to£li per ton, and |d to Jd per lb ; line of Southern onions, £4 5a to £4 15< ; oats, 2s Id to 2s 3d; maize, 2s to 2s Id ; bran, 4s ; sharps. 43 ; bacon, 4d to 54d ; hams, to Gid : fresh butter, No. 1, BJd to 10J, No. 2, Gd to 7id ; salt butter, ti£d to 9d ; estgs, Is to Is t£d ; cheese, 3d to 3.Jd ; eating apples, Id to ; cooking apples Jd to pd; Cape gooseberries, 5d ; latnons, 9d to Is 3d; grapes, hothouse 4Jd to 7d, outdoors 2Jd to 3d ; red plums, l£d to 2d ; GoWen Drop. 2d tii 2Jd ; damsons, Id to ljd; Bon Chretien pears, l|d to ljd ; one special line, large and clean, 3d ; other lots, Id to ; small cooking, jd ; tomatoes, No. 1, Id to 2id ; No. 2, Jd to jd ; water melons. 2s to Us (id ; rock melons, 2s Gd to Gs ; peaches, large B£i to Is per doz, small, 2Jd to 4d and Id to 2£d per lb ; quinces, fri to Id ; figs, 2Jd per dozen ; walnuts, 9d to OJd per lb; fowls, Is to Is Gd ; ducks, Is Id to Is 5d ; turkeys, 3s to 4s 3d. Mb Albx. aitken's Market Report for the week ending February 27th.—A brisk business doing. The private sales have been extensive, and a very large quantity of general produce has been placed, including orders for Honolulu and Fiji, the leading lines for theso orders being potatoes, onions, and butter. Of the former it has been difh-

cult to procure sufficient of prime samples to fill orders at an advance on market quotations. Tho previous dry weather has so seriously ittfected the crops that the bulk of supply ia very small. Present values for best lots are £3 10.-), while up to £4 5s has been obtained for re-sorted parcels for shipping. These values are likely to continue for the next three woeks, after which shipments from Napier are likely to ruin the sale of local lots, unless samples are of larger sisse. Ordinary samples sell at from 30a to 50s per ton. Cow potatoes : Thn late rains have checked the demand for this line, and 20s to 25s has been the ruling rate for all kinds. The stock is now vory light. Onions: About teu tons were quitted privately in two lines at £6 per ton j also a good quantity worked off at auction in small lines at Jd to Jd. In this line a ssrious drop might be looked for, as prime samples can be landed, and are now ottering from Canterbury at £310s, f.0.b., new sacks included. Maize: Afairqnantity has been worked off at 2s to 2s 3d, although the demand has certainly been weaker. Wheat: A few small parcels of local fowl feed found immediate sale at 3s 9d to 4s Id, and ths demand is still unsatisfied. Oats: Southern, 2s Id to 2s 4d ; local, none yet to hand. Vegetables have bean in better supply and sold at high prices. Butter : Supplies of both fresh and corned ara generally of very poor quality, but at present any kind is saleable: fresh, what might be called first quality, realised up to Hid per lb, while other lots sold at 7d to BJd : keg butter, orders for upwards of one ton of prune table butter for Honolulu mid Fiji wera tilled at 8d to ltd. Tho bulk of the supplies being summer made and of only medium quality, this found speedy sale at GJd; inferior and rank parcels down to sd. Eargs have an upward tendency, •nd realised from 10W to Is. Cheese : Nothing fresh t» quote, the supply and demand being about equal at 34d to 4d. Bacon and hams : A fair quantity of Canterbury quitted: bacon, guaranteed (in cloth), GVd to 7(1 ; hams, ditto, 8^1; second quality bacjn, 5d : hams, 5d to (JJ : local, none offering. Honey has been enquired for ; none on hand. Frait : The market for this lino continues poor, and prices are ruling low, but this cannot be wondered at, considering the quantity of inferior apples being offered, many of which would pay growers to use as pig and cow feed bettor than cfoing to expense of cases, etc.' A line of lino ton of assorted varieties, from a lending orchard, was Rold for shipping at. 14d per lb. Choice dessert apples realised l'Jd to 2d, those kinds being free from moth, and carefully packed, the varieties being Gravenstein, Court of Wick, Adam's Pearmain, Scarlet Pennrmin, Cellini, Cox's Orange and Ribstone Pippin. English Blenheim, a line of one ton, realised Id. Good ordinary cookers, including Bismarck, R<unette du Canada and Mobbs Royal, gd to and in a few cases, Id was obtained. That apples of good-keeping quality will command a high price is beyond doubt, and I strongly recommend growers to pay all attention to their late varieties. The crop this spftson is by no means a heavy one, coupled with the large quantities being sent to England, and a very large percentage being either destroyed by moth or fallen on account of tho excessive dry season. Pears were in Rood supply. Bon Chretein aro about dono. About two tons to hand realised 2d to per lb, according to quality and condition ; other varieties, which might yet he called coiking, Jd to ; late dessert, up to 2d. Quinces, fd to Id. Peaches : Fair supply of late kinds ; choice, 6d to fld per dozen ; poor, Id to 2d por lb. Plums: Crop is about done for present Beason ; Id to have been the ruling rates. Damsons, jtl to Hd. Grapes : Particularly plentiful; hut-house, >ld to 7d ; out door, 2d to Lemons, a shade lower, vu,, Gd to Is 2rl per dozen ; rigs, ljd to 2J'l ; passion fruit, ljjd to 2Jd ; tomato ljd : puanuts. ljd to 2d ; cocoanuts, 43 to 5s per sack. Poultry and pigs : No change in values ; supplios heavy, and previous week's quotations were fully main tained, _^_____—«—«»™