COMMERCIAL

Evening Star, Issue 7420, 16 January 1888, Page 3

COMMERCIAL

The amount of revenue collected at the Custom house on goods cloared to-day for consumption was 1.629 1 Id. EXPORT OF BUTTER. Mr G. G. Stead has introduced to tho notico of the people of Canterbury a method of packing fresh butter for export, whereby it is Bent in lib pats, wrapped separately in muslin, and placed in a wooden box with eliding trays. This plan, which attracted Mr Stead's notice during his recent visit to Auckland, is adopted in sending butter from Switzeiland to the English mirket, nnd is obviously preferable to packing the article in bulk, as tho risk of turning bad is less, and the butter rcochos maikct in a muoh moro attractive form. Tho box is of peculiar construction. It is made of while pine, covered with a kind of enamel or lacquer, said to ho absolutely impervious to either grease or moisture. The specimen box at Mr Stead's office is 2ft 4in long, 14in deep, and 14in high. It has threo trays, and the fiont is hinged, so as to allow them to be drawn out. Butter packed in such a box could be sent Home in the cool chambers of the direct steamers, and should command a good price in the English nurke'. It hv been suggested that tho boxes could be used for several fhipments by making arrangements with the shipping companies to bring them back to tho Colony when empty at a cheap rate.

THE LONDON MARKETS.

The Now Zealand L->an and Mercantile Agency Company (Limited) have received the following produce telecrram from their London effio*, dated 13th Inst:—" The tallow market has an upward tendency. Good mutjn is worth 25s 6d, and good beef 24a 6d per cwt" MINING NOTES. The Rcefton returns for the past week were :-h>ap-It-Dark, l(Moz of amalgam ; Fiery, 163ez from sixty tone.