TELEGRAPHIC COMMERCIAL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5345, 1 April 1879, Page 4

TELEGRAPHIC COMMERCIAL.

(PEOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) AUCKLAND, March. 29. Mr A. Saunders reports sharemarkefc as follows : — Sellers : National Bank, 68s ; New Zealand Insurance, GOs ; South Britisli, 565 ; National, 21s; Union, 13s ; Auckland Gas Company, £8 ss; Loan and Mercantile Agency, £4 15s. Buyers : Bank of New Zealand, £17 17s 6d. Sales : Moanatairi, 383 ; Albumia, 20s. [by cable.] SYDNEY, March 28. Adelaide flour, unchanged ; wheat 5s 3d ; New Zealand wheat, 4s 3d to 4s 6d; New Zealand oats, 3s Gd ; ke:osene, rice, tobacco, and sugar without quotable change. (BY SPEdAL WIRE.) OHRISTCHURCH, March 29. Wheat has been wiffliout change. The disposition of farmers is to sell, and there has been consequently greater freedom in the market. Large quantities are, however, still going to the port for shipment on producers' account. The quotation for best milling wheat is from 3s 3d to 3s 4d, for extra choice Bamplcs a shade over might be obtained, but the average price is not more than from 3s to 3s 2d; tho demand for chicken wheat is maintained. Oats are quiet, and sales wholly depend on local consumption ; firstclass milling, 2s lid to 3s ; good feed, 2s 9d to 2s 10d. Barley is not much in request ; quotations are for best milling samples, 5s 6d to 6s ; other kinds, 4s 6d to 5s 3d. Potatoes are 'coming into notice, although business is meagre ; prices range from 50s to 60s. Flour, be3t°brands \maltered, £8 to £9. Grass seed is not in enquiry ; 17c grass during the week lias been worse and prices have weakened, and where sales must be made it is doubtful if the current quotations could bo realised, especially if the parcels were large; clean samples are quoted at 4s 9d to 5s ; good to fair, 4s 3d to 4s sd; several medium-Bized lines of cocksfoot have been sold within the last day or so, at 5s to 5s 4d per cwt. In dairy produce there is a fair trade doing ; butter is about lOd ; cheese, 6d to 6£d ; hams and bacon, no alteration. • Stock and station report.— There are complaints of the spread of the aphis over the turnip and rape crops, and so jn'ospects for winter feed are not improving. At Addington on Wednesday last 4332 sheep and lambs, 27 cattle, and 92 pigs were yarded. Tat sheep were in moderate supply for trade purposes and of medium quality, for which there was but little competition ; most lines -were cleared, last week's quotations being barely maintained. Fat beef was in fair supuly both in number and quality ; quotations for best quality barely reached 255 ; medium, 215.. 6d to 245. Fat lambs were in short supply, but there was no demand ; best, 6s 6d ; inferior, downwards. Pigs sold freely at fair prices, according to do- viption and quality. In store stock there has been no improvement, and with the approaching winter there is little prospect of any change ; nothing but well conditioned 3'oung cattle claim attention, and even for these grazers are careless. Cull sheep find a nominal value for boiling. ' The " Cora exchange " in its weekly report BaTS : -l_" There has been an average amount of business done during the week. Wheat continues to be Bhipped in large quantities to

, iJOiidoh. The grain carried by the Christchurch. Bunedin and Invercargill railway for the eight weeks ending March 6th, shows an uiftftmse over tile quantity carried in the same period last year of 6170 tons ; the total of grain carried in the eight weeks this year reached 27,168 tons. Although this may appear large in gauging the carry-ing capacity of the railway, it is insufficient as compared with the Victorian railway facilities, as it is weorded that for the first two weeks this year 26)834 tons of grain and flour were carried over the Victorian lines to Melbourne. It is therefore palpable that in Victoria in two weeks the railways do as much in the grain line as is done by the Now Zealand railways in eight weeks. This illustrates the fact that the carrying system of the\New Zealand railways is defective. Business during the week has been at a standstill. Sfcorekee»ors evince no

disposition to buy, and importers are indifferent about selling, except to well-known marks. This feeling has been growing stronger week by week, aud has been intensified by the suspension of Mr Saunders, though when the causes of this gentleman's embarrassment are considered, his failure ought not to affect commercial credit, seeing that the disaster has been brought about by adverse circumstances outside of his mercantile operations. To the locking up of capital in the purchase and improvement of land, losses on cropping, heavy disbursements and interest on mortgages must be attributed the immediate cause of Mr Saunders' difficulties, which doubtless would have been averted but for the short crop and the impossibility of realising on properties."