COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1918, Page 4

COMMERCIAL & FINANCIAL

Evening Post, Thursday. Both wholesale and retail business has been quiet for some time past. This is accounted for by a variety of causes. Among them may be mentioned hositanoy to maio commitments in view of possible fall in prices and freight rates, aucl, later, tho disturbance caused by tho innuen&u. epidemic. Business in normal times would bo at its height at this season; instead there is a general tone of dulness. However, thero -arc!* still somo days to go to Christmas, and shop windows are already dressed in anticipation. It is truo that many men are still away on active service, but the cessation of hostilities should give reason enough for rejoicing, and with it the freer spending- in luxuries. How far high prices have restricted business it is as yet rather difficult to ascertain. Efforts jnado to elicit trustworthy wholesale opinion on the subject go to show that people will still pay high prices if they caa ge,t what they ask for. Thero has in the recent past been great difficulty in obtaining many imported lines, and this is likely to continue. Supplies were short, and being short were very dear; but there was not experienced much difficulty on the 6core of price in selling retail. However, there are somo familiar with tho retail trade as seen through a wholesale medium who hold that a greater impetus will be given to business over the counter when prices of things that can bo done without show moderation, This will be difficult to give effect to in consequence of the high landed cost of many articles now in tho shops. So far as drapery and soft goods business is concerned, these ■remarks do riot fully apply. Possibility of easier prices now that the war is over is no doubt responsible for the slackening off of indenting business in many directions. Bat it is highly problematical if reduction in wholesale prices, can be looked for for some time to come. '

There has been experienced for some time past &'shortage of. silver coin in. ciroulation, but the position, can by no .means be said to have become acute. Coin in circulation to-day k silver and bronze, the sovereign and half-sovereign being now extremely raro in passing from hand to hand. New Zealand's supply of nowsilver and bronze is obtained from London, but there is an increasing quantity of silver coinage of .Commonwealth mintage in circulation to-day. If the need for a, greater supply of change should become necessary live shilling bank notes can now bo issued, and they would probably. be found as porta-ble and oonvenient in New Zealand as the "dollar.bill" is in. the United States. Now that troops are not being sent a'vvay from. New Zealand the diminishing of the Dominion's supply of silver money. filiould bo noticeable, for .eye-ry man leaving took away silver with him. If, say, 1000 men loft in a transport with ton shillings pocket money in silver per man—a low estimate—it would represent something like £500 a. month in oash leaving tho country, wheroae very little of it camo back with returning drafts, and imports of specie have been few and far between.

WOOL.—The opinion of Sir Arthur Goldfinch, Imperial Wool Controller, is that Government orders to woollen manufacturer* wili. continue until about March next. Nevertheless tho Imperial Government has concluded, arrangements with Now Zealand growers for the purotuwo of their wool clips for I^lß-1919 and 1919----1920, on tho same terms (with some improvements to producers) as previously. Wool sales are expected to be• resumed 'ji London somewhere about June or Jnly r.ext. Locally. valuations have been interfered with by influenza, and in Wellington a dispute as to wages and oonditions of storemen has arisen, but, titeae difficulties surmounted, tho work of the wool year should run smoothly. Growers now know what they are going to get and can make their arrangements accordingly —an advantage thoy did not enjoy to the full before the requisition of their clips. Of last year's Argentine and Uruguay clips, it is estimated that £3,750,000 worth of wool were purchased on German account. X Largo purchases of • wool, were made tor' and by Germans in Spain and other neutral countries. It is believed that so soon as manufacturing can b» resumed in Germany there will bo ample raw material to get to work upon before it will become necessary to "sound" the Allied countries on tho matter of supplies. '

HEMP.—London is reported to be "nibbling," but tho freight space difficulty blocks the way, and is likely to do so for some time to come. America is silent, and not much is looked for from that quarter for tho present. Australia is understood to be in the' market if the prioo is all in its favour, which it i» not at tho moment. Prices f.o.b. are approximately as follow:—Good fair, £38 per ton; high fair, £37; low, £35; no inquiry.

DAIRi PRODUCE.—OId-established local firms, who have made a close study of fcha butter and cheese markets of the world in the interests oT producers, will have but little to do in this direction for the next two years. For tho current and next seasons all exportable surplus of butter and cheese made in the Dominion will (under present arrangements) pay through the Imperial Supplies Department, to which producers have direct access. The price to be paid for oheeso, viz., lOjJd per pound, puts cheesemakers on velvet for the next two years. The returns to buttermakers of 181s per cwt., however, while satisfactory'so f»r as they go, put the butter men at a disadvantage by pence per pound on the butter-fat basis compared with returns of tho cheesemakers. Sales have been made to Vancouver at Is 7|d and Is 7jd from Auckland. This business, it is understood, will be regarded as contributory to tho local price 'equalisation fund. Tho question is, ■ what will bo the price of butter for local consumption in New Zealand if it is worth Is 7gdwhen, sold to the Imperial Government. If it is to be brought on a parity with that exported, then butter cannot »ny longer be retailed at the present • price for first grade of Is 8d per pound. In Australia the local price has been brought Ui>to export value, viz., 175s per cwt. There are to be exported from New Zealand, according--to latest space bookings, 30,000 boxes of butter and 24,000 crates of cheese from Auckland, and 37,030 orates of cheese and 40,000 boxes of butter from Wollington.

TJIIA. —There is an easier tone on the fea markets of Java and Colombo owing 1)o restricted ewso space •offering for Australia and elsewhere. In Calcutta Indian teas show » slight advance. There is some Russian buying in India, which may account for tho rise. The future all depends on sHipping.