FINANCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12729, 12 April 1904, Page 3

FINANCE.

BRITISH REPORTS. LONDON, April 10. Consols—£37 7s 6d. Copper,—Spot £SB 7s fid, three months £SB 7s 6d. Lead—£l2 8s l^d. Silver—2s 0 13-16 d. Linseed—£lß.

FROZEN MEAT. LONDON, April 10. Frozen meat market.—Sheep; North Island ordinary 4 3-16 d; all other sorts of sheep and lambs unchanged. Beef: New Zealand fores 2|d, hinds 3d; Rivet Plate unchanged.

OFFICIAL ADVICES. WELLINGTON, Monday. The Department of Industries and Commerce has received the following cablegram from the Agent-General dated London, 9th instant : The mutton market is quiet but firm. Stocks on hand are very light. The average price to-day for Canterbury brands is 4|d per lb; for Dunedin, Southland and W.M.E. Company’s brands 4|d; for other North Island brands The average price for Eiver Plate mutton is 3|d per lb. The lamb market is now steady at lower prices recently established. The demand is improving, and, everything considered, there is a better tone in the lamb market this week. The average price to-day for Canterbury brands of lamb is 5d per lb, for brands other than Canterbury 4|d to 4|d, for Biver Plate and for Australian 4jd.

The beef market is overstocked and depressed. The average price for hindquarters o! New Zealand beef is 3d per lb, fores 2|d. The butter market has .collapsed. There are heavy supplies on hand, and buyers of butter are holding back, expecting prices to go lower. The average price of choicest New Zealand butter to-day is 90s per cwt, Australian 08s, Argentine 87s, and Danish 98s,

The cheese market is not quite so firm, the demand falling off. The average price of finest New Zealand cheese to-day is 49s per cwt, Canadian 50s. The hemp market is steady, with a moderate demand. The price for New Zealand hemp, good fair Wellington grade on spot to-day, is £3l to £32 per ton, April to June shipments £3O to £3O 10s. The present stock of hemp in London is 875 tons, as against 442 tons in stock at this date last year. April to June shipments of Manila hemp of fair current grade are quoted at £34 10s. The cocksfoot seed market is firm. The average price for bright clean New Zealand seed weighing 171b per bushel on spot to-day is 52s per cwt.

BUTTER. Under the date of February 26th, Messrs. Mills and Sparrow, Tooleystreeb, London, state: —“We are very pleased to report that the butter which landed per s.s. Himalaya this week opened in fine order; they have been carried well by the steamer, and we are very pleased indeed to see the lower temperature at which these goods are being brought along. The consequence is that Australian butter to-day is making about the same price as New Zealand, which it has not done for the past two or three years. We are confident, if the steamers will bring Australian butter at temperatures under 20 degrees, that we shall hear less of the ‘fishy* trouble, than we have done for some time. In the United States, where butter is extensively stored, the tendency is to reduce the temperatures until they are now being carried at zero, and American traders inform us they are getting better results from these low temperatures.”