COMMERCIAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2406, 8 September 1868, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

Lyttdton Tints Office, Monday Evening.

The Customs revenue collected at Christchurch to-day, amounted to £65 8s Bd. The following were the items:—Tea, 1480 lbs, £37; ginger, 451 lbs, £5 12s 9d; lobsters, 20 boxes, £2 10s lod; currants, 5 casks, £5 10s Id; sugar,272olbs, £ll 16s 8d; salt herrings, 2* cwt, ss; pepper, 760 lbs, £5 3s 4d.

The Customs revenue collected at Lyttelton to-day, amounted to £23 9s 2d. The following were the items:—Wine, 56 gals, £ll 3a 3d: nails, 20 cwt, £1; pilotage, £5 3s 4d. '

The following is an abstract of the quantity of land sold at the Waste Lands Office, to-day :-Upper Christchurch District, 20 acres; Mandevffle, 30; Oxford, 50; Malvern, 50. Total, 150 acres, realising £3OO,

The following agricultural report appears in the Australasian of Aug. 29:—The news from California that several Vessels were about to sail with breadstuffs for these colonies qnite put a stop to some few large transaction? in flour pending at the end of hist wei-k. Still holders express themselves as confi.Uut that pricescannotfallhere much, or at all, at present, as stooks are running short. It is said that some of the country districts will Boon be wanting flour from Melbourne, even though we have no more than enough for the consumption of the town jv»;-ulatio!i (luring the remainder of the twelvemonth. However that may be, supplies will be pouring in fast from California, as at the date of our last intelligence, July 6 an enormous harvest was being gathered in there, and prices were falliug rapidly. In this direction only was there a possible outlet for any considerable portion of the surplus, so that wc arc likely to receive rather too much of tiiis before speculative shipments cm be stopped. Wheat is declining in value, and in the present uncertain state of the market few millers care to buy. Barley maintains its price, but feeding grains are on the turn downwards again. There has been no change of any consequence in the hay market. _ The late showers have done some good again, but a heavy and continuous fall of rain is much needed to soak the ground. Many fields of wheat are very backward, apparently from a want of moisture enough to give the young plants a good »tart. And..many parts of the country will suffer severely if there be not soon rain

enough to fill the natural and artificial reservoirs. In South Australia the farmers have mostly had rain enough to bring on their wheat well) and in all the principal agricultural districts the crops are reported to afford fair promise, from shrivelled as well as from plump grain. Sheep-shearing has how become general in Riverina, and it is said that on very many of the stations the wool is being capitally got up. The settlers appear to be greatly elated at the prospect of their being able to raise wool quite as good as the produce of sheep on this side of the Murray. Until the Victorian judges at the Hay Society's show expressed that as their opinion, the general idea was that the wool from the large tract of country now carrying so many sheip would always be of somewhat inferior character. The strong opposition to the introduction of stud sheep i from Victoria by way of the Murray has led to the adoption of mevures intended to do away in some degree with the necessity for these. The plan adopted by the Conargo board of scab directors is to send to Queensland for" an eminent and well-known judge of sheep, that he may select from the best flocks in Riverina some of the choicest male and female sheep," and thus establish stud flocks, in order that they may breed their own rams. This plan is deemed preferable to running any risk of introducing scab; but we fear that, with no bettor or purer foundation for their stud flocks, the process of improvement must needs be slow.