COMMERCIAL.

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 6

COMMERCIAL.

A contract was let at Wellington on Thursday for some 200 to 300 tons of "fair average quality" of New Zealand hemp at a price which is within the region of £3O per ton f.o.b. The sale has been affected six months ahead of the season. Nine years ago, when the product of the colony's flax-mills was 1,800 tons, the sellinjr price for higher grade auality than that contracted for yesterday was from £9 to £lO per ton. For the 1906 season the amount of flax produced in New Zealand was 29,000 tons. VICTORIAN LOANS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright MELBOURNE, August 6. (Received August 6, at 10.30 a.m.) The Credit Foncier loan of £IOO,OOO at 3£ per cent, is announced at a minimum of £9B, with a currency of eleven years and a-half. _Mr Bent states that half a million of his surplus has been shipped to England to pay off borrowed money. The Treasurer is negotiating in regard to the issue of a four-million conversion loan. The Savings Bank Commissioners have agreed to underwrite two millions at par. The loan when issued will bear interest at the rate of 3| per cent., and be used to pay off the 4 per cent. loan. THE MARKETS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, August 5. (Received August 6, at 10.31 a.m.) Frozen meat : Sheep—Canterbury light, 3§d ; medium, 3 9-16 d-, heavy, land, 3 5-16 d: North Island, 3 3-16 d; best, 3Jd. Lambs—Canterbury light, 4 13-16 d : medium, 4 11-16 d ; heavy, 4d ; Southland, 4fd; North Island, 4' 9-16 d; other meat unchanged. (The Frozen Meat Trade Association's Smithfield market quotations for the above-mentioned classes of frozen meats are based on actoal sales of not less than 100 carcasses of mutton or lamb or 25 carcasses of beef of fair average quality; these quotations are not for selected lines, but for parcels fair representative of the bulk of the shipments now on the market. New Zealand sheep—CToss-bred wethers and maiden ewes, Canterbury light, 48-561b; Canterbury medium, 56-641b; Canterbury heaw, 64-721b; Dunedin and Southland, 56-64Tb: North Island, 55-65Tb. New Zealand lambs—Canterbury light, 28-361b ; Canterbury heavy, 36-421b; Dunedin and Southland, 28-421b: North Island, 28-421b.) Hemp: Dull. August and September, £34. Rabbits : Neglected. Copra : Weaker. South Sea nominally unchanged. Copper: Spot, £B3 ss; three months, £B2 15s. Tin : Spot, £179 12s 6d; three months, £179 15s. Lead, £l6 12s 6d. An Australian wheat cargo sold at 30s l^d.