COMMERCIAL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 88, 22 May 1877, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

FROM the lyttelton times. Christchurch, Friday Evening. GRAIN AND PRODUCE.

Oats.— There are not so many offering as might be expected, and all samples are more or less discoloured ; we quote 2s 2d to 2s 4d for feed; milling samples are scarce and worth fully 2s 6d.

Barley.—There is a wide range in prices for thiscereal. The carelesness of farmers in selecting seed, unsuitable and badly prepared soil, combined with other causes, tend to produce a large quantity of thin or flinty grain. Really prime barley, when any offers, is readily saleable. We quote best malting at 4s 6d ; other qualities at lower rates down to 2s 3d, at which price several parcels have been purchased for feed.

Beans and peas are worth 3s and 3s 6d. Potatoes are coming forward in large quantities, and are saleable at 40s per ton. Dairy Produce. —Cheese of good quality is worth 6d ; butter lid, supply plentiful. Millers quote flour, best quality, for •export parcels, at £16 ; bran, £4 ; sharps, £5. Messrs H. Matson and Co. report on the live stock market, &c. for the week ending Friday, May 18, as follows:—l 37 cattle, 2878 sheep, and 42 pigs, were yarded for the week's supply on Wednesday last. There was only a limited attendance of buyers, and the sale upon the whole was unsatisfactory. Our entries for the day were limited to 103 head cattle, 1284 sheep, and 19 pigs, for various owners. We disposed of the bulk of our entries at, for fat cattle, £8 10s, £10 10s, to £11 per head; milch cows and springers, £8 10s, £12, to £14 per head; young stock, at from £4 12s Gd to £5 10s. In sheep, the class to hand was inferior, and prices ruled accordingly. There is n capital demand for good lines of fat cross-bred and merino wethers, as also for good stores for turnip feeding. The supply of cross-bred lambs is limited, for which there is a capital demand ; any lots coining forward would realise good values. Wool, skins, hides, &c.—A good entry was offered at our usual weekly sal eon Thursday last. The quality of the butchers' cross-breds was excellent, and realised from 3s 6d, 3s 9d, 4s, 4s 3d, 4s 6d, ss, to 5s 3d ; merinos, from 2s 6d, 2s Bd, to 2s lOd; inferior and ordinary sorts, lower. Hides, salted, 4£d per lb ; green, 3|d, withdrawn ; calf skins, Gd ; rough fat, 2d, 2£d, to 2H per lb. Country Sales.—At Duvauchelle's Bay on Monday last, we held a clearing sale for Messrs H. Piper and others, when 150 head of cattle, 1300 sheep, and 40 horses were catalogued for the sale. There was a numerous attendance, but in consequence of the severity of the weather the sale was not the success anticipated. We disposed of the cattle with the exception of one line at for fat, £10. £12, to £14. per head ; milch cows, £7 10s to £12 ; crossbred wethers, 7s to 10s per head ; merinos at 2s 6dper head. It was simply impossible to offer the horses through the downfall of prices. In lands during the week we have sold the following lots :—Nos, 7,8, 9, 10,11, and 12, Ellis' Papanui land, equal to 12a Or 6p, £1805 12s 6d; lots Nos. 5 and 6, Rev Baxter's Papanui sections, equal to 2a 3r 13p, for £283 4s 6d ;lots 6, 7,8,9, and 10 Restell's Papanui, equal to la Or 200, for £135 ; lots, 4, 5, and 6, Sandridge, at £30 to £90 ; Pigeon Bay—2sß acres for £3354, 41 acres for £779,179 acres for £1428, 198 acres for £2178, 70 acres for £1750 : 6 sections in Malvern Township, for £26 ; 4 sections in Sheffield, for £44 ; (sundry suburbanfots at fair values. At Tattersall's on Saturday-last 136 horses were catalogued induing consignments from Victoria, Otago and Timaru. We succeeded in selling a large number at fair values. The demand for really good draught stock is good, and we sold such at from £35, £45, to £50 per head ; light stock of good quality at £20, £25. to £35 ; unbroken stock superior, £I's, £35, to £42 10s per head. For good horses of all descriptions there is a capital demand, and good values can be obtained.