COMMERCIAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 March 1917, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

CANTERBURY PRODUCPE MARKETS ■I Meagher and Co., produce merchants, Christchurch. report for the week ending March 16th as follows: There is unusual activity i'n the produce markets, and we have-no recollection of a season when an all.round demand equal tu the present could be recorded, for every produt of the soil of Canterbury. As an indication of the position we may state that in conversation with a leading local grain merchant-this week he informed us that he was prepared to accept all we could offer of wheat, oats, rye grass, white and ret! clover, linseed and, especially, partridge pens, aiid to allow us a profit over and above the highest current quotations. The parched condition of the l'lains means an increased demand for forage of all kinds, and. consequently, the chaff market is on the upward grade. There is a large business doing in potatoes and onions for so early in the season, and the ordinary shipping available is unequal to cope with the northern orders. The I'nion Company is despatching the Kovomikn direct to Auckland with a cargo of produce from Timaru and here. This will relieve the situation for a week or two. Indeed at the present rate at which produce is being shipped there will be only a small surplus left in a few months' lime. The quotations given below are for purchases from fanners, net cash, sacks extra, for produce delivered at country stations. In the case of wheat the maximum prices are fixed by the Board of Trade on an 1'.0.b, basis, Wheat—Pear! 5s 9d, Hunter's 5s Bd. and Tuscan 5s 7d, sacks 9id each. Oats—Cartons 3s 6d; Algerians 3s sd. and Duns as 6d per bushel, sacks extra. Flour.—2Colb sacks £ls per ton. .. iJj'au—£4, and Pollard £6 per ton. Oatmeal—2slb bags £2l per ton. Linseed.—£2o per ton, sacks extra. Partridge peas.—6s 6d to 6s 9d per bushel. While (.'i„ver.--Is 9d to 2s per lb. Ryegrass. —4s 9d to 5s 9d per bushel, Cocksfoot.— per lb f-o.b. Onions.—£6 10s per ton f.o.b.s.i IV'latoes. £5 12s (kl to £5 15s per ton 1.0. b,, sacks included,