COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 115, 9 July 1875, Page 5

COMMERCIAL.

Mb. A. Mercer reports for the week ending July 7, retail prices only : — Fresh butter, 2s 3d per lb. j powdered butter, Is lOd to 2s. The supply of fresh butter is very scarce and not near euough coming in to supply the demand. Cheese, best quality, Is 2d ; side bacon, Is 3d j rolled bacon, Is 2d j Colonial hams, Is 4d; English hams, Is 8d to Is 9d; eggs plentiful, retail* ing 2s per dozen. Mr. Skeene reports for the week ending July 7 :-— There are very few changes to note in the labour market./ Plenty of work, but large contracts are held back by the weather. Ploughmen are again very scarce. Bushmen and sawmill hands are much enquired for. The building trade is almost at a stand still. Carpenters for country districts are much wanted. "We could do with plenty more useful people from Britain (although a good many are afloat). It is to be hoped they will not arrive until the winter is over. No use saying French servants are scarce, that cannot be helped, for if those we got were right, we might be able to rub along. A great many men are supporting the street corners at present, and complaining, but they must bear the season like. workmen in other parts of the world, then time will soon come again. Wages — shepherds, J660 ; t ploughmen, £o2 to ; couples, .£65 to .£BO ; labourers, from 8s to 10s per day ; carpenters, 10s and\ 12s per day j meal and flour millers, from £2 10s to 10s ; sawmill and planeing machine hands, from «£3 to £4s per week; house girls, from JE26 to .£4O ,• hotel do, from £4to to £52 ; cooks from 25s to 60s per week. Mb. Hbnky Driver (on behalf of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company) reports as follows, for the week ending July 7 : — Fat Cattle. — 160 head were yarded to-day, but only a email proportion were of really prime quality, which brought fully late quotations. Best bullocks from £10 10s to £13 ; second quality ditto, at from £7 to £9 10s ; best cows, from £7 10s to £10 10s j second quality ditto, £5 to £7, or equal to £1 12s to £1 13s per 1001 b. for prime, and £1 5s to £1 7s for ordinary quality. At the yards, we sold 40 head, on account of Messrs. Buckland and M'Lareu, and have also sold 120 head for forward delivery. Fat Calves. — Owing to the very small supply forward, extreme rates were obtained, prime vealera bringing up to £4. Fat Sheep. — About 2,000 of various sorts were penned. The trade being already fairly supplied, and the quality offered not being very tempting, they bought very cautiously, and fully one-half had to go out unsold. Q-raziers, finding their flocks losing condition, are forcing them into the market. Prime quality will gradually become more scarce, and we-look foe a steady advance in the^ value of this description of mutton. At the yards we sold 500 merino wethers at lla 6d, on account of James Logan, Esq., of Greendale Station ; and have sold, for forward delivery, 700 cross-breds at full rates. We quote prime cross-breda (immediate delivery) at 4d per lb. ; ditto merinos, 3d to 3id. Store Cattle. — "We have sold a few lots at quotations, and placed 600 head under offer. Well-grown bullocks, in fair condition, are i saleable at £5 10s to £7 ; ditto cows, £4 to £5 ss ; mixed herds, at | £2 10s to £4, according to ages, sexes, and condition. Store Sheep. — Almost every class of sheep is in good demand, with special inquiries for young merino ewes in lamb, and aged crossbreds for turnip feeding. We have placed a few hundreds at following rates : — Cross-breds, four-tooth and over, up to 15s ; ditto, twotooth, up to 12s 6dj ditto, lambs, up to 9d 6d; merino ewes, sixtooth and under, up to 10s ; ditto, full-mouthed, up to 6s 6d ; ditto wethers, six-tooth and under, up to 9s ; ditto, full-mouthed, up to 7s. ■\\r oo l. — Priced catalogues received per Suez mail up to 13th May, confirm previous advices per cablegrams, that higher rates were obtained during the London sales, which closed 24th June. The advance is most perceptible in scoured and well got up washed fleeco and cross-bred greasy, the latter exhibiting an increased demand for long grown wools. Sheepskins were well competed for at our sale on Thursday last, maintaining advanced quotations, particularly in crosa-breds, green butchers' bringing 4s 2d to 5s each ; dry cross-bred, 3s Id to 3s lid } merinos, 2s 3d to 2s 9d ; short wool, Is 7d to 2s j pelts, 6d to Is 2d. Hides well maintain former quotations. Inferior brought 18s to 19s each ; butchers' green, 25s to 265. We shall offer at our sale tomorrow (which in future will be held at 2 o'clock instead of 3 as formerly), several superior slaughtermen's lots. Tallow. — A few lots found buyers at 29s for good mixed ; 278^'to 23s 6d for medium to inferior. No shipping prices offered. Grain. — This market continues dull. Wheat, very superior, is wanted at 4s 6d; medium to good, 4s 2d to 4s 4d; inferior, 4s. Fowls' feed much inquired for up to 3s 9d. Oats are not so firm this week. Some holders, influenced by late advices from Melbourne, have accepted lower rates. Present quotations : For good feed, 2s 8d to 2s 9d; milling, 2s lOd to 2s lid. Barley remains unaltered; very little offering, and brewers well stocked. Good to superior malting, 5S5 S 6d to 6s ; medium, 5s to 5s 3d ; inferior, 4a 4d to 4s 6d. The " advanced party," both in this country and in Europa, is constantly asserting that it is necessary for civilization that a law abolishing the sentence of death should be passed, and thatkilling tho»e who kill is a practice only worthy of the ages of barbarism. In Italy, within the past few years, the extreme sentence is no longer in use, and in consequence the number of murders have greatly increased. In 1871, 2267 persons were arrested for murder, aridthough all of them were found guilty, not one was put to death. The following year the number of murders increased to 3,620, and in 1873, it rose to 3,780. Last year the number is reported as being even higher still. In Florence alone last year there were twenty-three murders, and in the little city of Sienna, in less than three years, twenty-nine. It would seem from these statistics that the abolition of the sentence of death does not decrease the number of homicides, but, on the contrary, appears to increase it.