MELBOURNE WHEAT MARKET.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7268, 26 March 1889, Page 5

MELBOURNE WHEAT MARKET.

[FROM OUR CORRBSPOKD__-_CI [By Telegraph from this Bluff.] MELBOURNE, March 20. The publication this day week of the Government statistics regarding wheat occasioned great excitement in the market, and the merchants, agents and brokers engaged in the business lost no time in wiring the results to the country, to Adelaide and Sydney, and to Hew Zealand. The Argus, in its commercial report for that day, says:—"Holders in the country either raised their limits or withdrew their parcels from offer for the present. The market has, therefore, been unsettled and excited, and closing last evening with a rather large sale at 5s 6d, it rapidly advanced today. Early in the morning two or three parcels were sold at 6s 9d, subsequently 5s lOd, and then 5a lid were obtained, and this afternoon a large contract has been fixed at 6s. In all we have heard of sales made aggregating about 38,000 bags. The market closes in an uncertain condition as to the prospects of a further ad vance. New Zealand prices have hardened sufficiently to make importations from that quarter unlikely, even if the grain was in favor. The Cahfornian market is, however, rather easier, but wheat thence could not be landed at less than 6s 3d duty paid, not to speak of the lower value it possessed as compared with Victorian wheat. The local market appears, therefore, to be quite under the control of local holders."

The figures of the Government Statist are as follow:—He gives the area under wheat as 1,214,876 acres; oats, 197,379 acres; potatoes, 43,241 acres; hay, 410,395 acres. The gross produce of the crops was —wheat, 8,603,230 bushels, being an average of 7.1 bushels per acre; oats, 2,801,858 bushels, an average of 14.20 bushels; potatoes, 133,481 tons, an average of 3.09 ,- hay, 309,068 tons, an average of 1.5. The figures as to wheat are particularly disappointing, aa, after deducting the necessary quantity of home consumption and seed requirements, the total left for export is only 1,064,705 bushels, and as, up to 9th March, 746.127 bushels had been exported, it follows that the surplus now remaining for export ia only 318,578 bushels, or practically none. The local market will have, therefore, to depend on local supply and demand. The dry season has been ruinous also to oats, which show an average return of only 14 1-oth bushels, compared with very close on 23 bushels for the two preceding years. Australia, as a whole, promises to be a large importer of wheat this year. Victoria haa practically nothing left for export. South Australia, with an average of 3 bushels per acre, haa a ______ over 2,000,0-0 bushels for export, whilst New South Wales, which has an average of 5 bushels to the acre, will require to import to satisfy her own needs, no less than EaUlion bushels.