COMMERCIAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2932, 2 June 1870, Page 1

COMMERCIAL.

Otago. —The Daily Times of May 30 reports The grain market closes anything but encouragingly; the almost entire absence of an export trade in this article from this province has perpetuated a languid state of business. In past seasons a brisk speculative feeling has generally at this time been manifested, but the present is an exception, operations being almost confined to the supply of local requirements. Wheats have reached the market in fair quantity, many parcels proving of inferior quality, evidencing the effect the wet weather prevailing during harvest time has had upon the present crop. Good sound samples are realising from 3s 9d to 4s, the town millers buying sparingly even of these, while second-rate _ parcels are not easily moved. The market is at present overstocked with barley, for which there is no enquiry: 8s 4d to3s9dmay be taken as the nominal quotation. There are, however, no transactions to guide to an exact value. Oats have been stored in town for better rates than those now attainable, viz., 2s 4d to 2s 6d, though the future of this article has very little more promise than the items previously referred to. The millers report a fair town trade, a meagre country demand and no export trade ; consequently the mills are anything but busy, and values have not been affected in the direction of improvement. Town made flour is quoted at £lO 10s to £11; bran, at 75s to 80s ; oatmeal, £l6 10s to £l7; pearl barley, £27 to £2B. In the sales of grain, wheats have averaged 3s 9d to 4s, and oats, 2s 4d to 2s 6d ; no barley moving. The value of new Patna rice is, duty paid, £26 to £26 10s per ton, nearly that of last month; older parcels are worth £2l to £2l 10s. Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. report, for the week ending 28th May, as follows Fat cattle.—The market is well supplied. We yarded 43 head middling to good quality, which fetched equal to 18s to 20s per lOOlbs. These prices represent current rates. Fat sheep.—About 500 came to market, which sold at a slight advance on late quotations. We sold privately for delivery, 1000 merino wethers at prices equal to 2d per lb. We quote prime quality 2d per lb. Store cattle.—No transactions. We have for sale a very fine herd of 300 mixed cattle, South, which are well worthy the attention of buyers. Store sheep.—No transactions. We have enquiries for good half-bred and merino lambs and wethers. Horses.— There is a fair demand for good draught stock, and horses adapted for coaching purposes, but light and inferior animals are difficult of sale. Grain.—Market inactive. A few small parcels of oats have been quitted at 2s 6d, and of barley at 3s 9d to 4s 6d per bushel, the latter price being for a very superior sample. Wheat, no transactions.

Melbourne— The Argus of May 23 reports:—ln the import markets to-day, business has not been characterised by any degree of animation. Doubtless the departure of the mail steamer, and the necessary attention to home correspondence requisite in consequence, have interfered with even the moderate amount of business transactions with which the week usually closes. There is no appearance of a movement in breadstuffs beyond the trifling demand for trade purposes recorded of late. Flour in trade parcels is quitted at £ll to £ll 10s. Wheat is saleable at 4s lOd to 4s lid. The market continues to be as barely supplied as ever. The policy of the farmers hitherto has apparently been to keep back their produce in the hope that by so doing prices might advance, but the publication of the agricultural statistics discloses the fact that in wheat alone there had been an increase last year of 1,467,828 bushels over the previous. The imprudence of holding back under such circumstances then, must be manifest. In oats, barley, and maize, there is likewise a large increase, but the increase in potatoes is more remarkable still, being fully 60 per cent., the yield for this year amounting to no less a quantity than 47,701 tons, all of which figures unmistakably point to a lower scale of prices during the remainder of the season. Oats are offering freely at 3s 4d for prime samples. Maize maintains a quotation of 4s lOd, but there has been little offering. Woolpacks are steady at Ss 7d ; holders are careless of selling at our quotation, and invariably quote a higher price, but we have not heard of any sales over. Hops meet with a good iuquiry, and sales of considerable parcels are reported as pending. In liquids, sales of Hennessy’s case brandy have been made at 27s 3d. The same paper of May 21 reports : —We hear of some inquiry for kerosene oil, but though parcels are said to be under treaty, no actual sales have yet been brought before us; a demand for export to Sydney as well as to New Zealand is likewise stated to be springing up. We learn of the sale in one line of some 4000 bushels malt, on private terms. Sugar shows little or no animation, and considerable heaviness pervades the market. The Victorian Sugar Company report a reduction on the price of their sugars of £2 per ton all round ; their quotations now stand at £42 for first whites, £4O for second whites, £3B for first counters, £B3 10s for C., and £3O for Y. sugar. We observe that the cargo of Mauritius sugar per Loch Awe, amounting to 3400 bags and 2900 pockets, will be offered for sale on Monday. The following agricultural report is from the Argus of May 21The farmers are again complaining'of the weather,but not now for the fault usually attributed to the Australian climate. A few weeks since the country was parched for want of rain, whilst now there has been so much that the roads are almost impassable where they have not been macadamised, and teams cannot go on the cultivated land to plough it. Fora few days only the ground was in good order for ploughing and sowing, when more rain fell, rendering much of it altogether too wet for either description of work. Thus the wheat sowing will be delayed beyond what is usually the most favourable time, but land soon dries here after the rain ceases, and as June is generally a fine month, the farmers may still get much of their seed in before the winter is half over. Last year was unfavourable for late sown crops, but sometimes these are the best, and we must hope that such may be the case this year. It is now some six years since the ground had such a thorough soaking thus early in the winter, and the want of this was becoming sadly apparent last summer, by the failure of many springs and other sources of water supply which held out through the drought of the summer before. One effect of the great abundance of rain is to make feed very plentiful; but as a set off against this advantage much of the hay in stacks is spoiling, and will be only fit for the dungheap. The crop of this was everywhere very heavy at last harvest, and prices have consequently been low, so that even less than the usual amount of care, small as this is, was taken to secure the stacks against bad weather. Straw is seldom secured at all under our rough mode of farming, so that before the winter is over the threatened superabundance of dry fodder may disappear. Wheat has remained at the same price for some months past, about 6s a bushel; and the fact that South Australia has a comparatively small surplus for export this year, as proved by the lately collected statistical returns, has caused no change in value. This only corroborates the opinion previously held, that in regard to breadstuffs we are this year independent of foreign supply, the produce of the colony being sufficient for the twelvemonth’s consumption. The statistical returns just collected prove this also. The yield of oats was large, but this grain is rising in value again, owing to the destruction of maize in New South Wales by the floods. Horsekeepers in England seem to he only discovering the economy of feeding with the latter grain, but it is so highly approved of in these colonies, especially for horses from which very fast work is not required, that it is by many preferred to oats, even at the same cost, weight for

.weight. Now, however, it has become so scarce that the price per bushel is equal to that of wheat, although for a few poumfc less, so oats will have to be generally used again for the remainder of this year at least.

The London Economist of March 12, in its review of the commercial history of 1869, has the following on the prospects of the wool market for 1870: —The prospects of 1870 will mainly depend upon whether the supplies will suffer any diminution or not. From Australia, as well as from the River Plate States, a decrease in the wool clip is announced, and in the case Of the latter country there is reason to believe that a sensible falling-off in the production will indeed take place, the abandoning of stations and boiling down of flocks having been carried on in a truly wholesale manner. As for Australia, there will probably be a decrease in most cases, but whether it will be large is doubtful, and as the production in Adelaide still seems to augment, and a considerably increased clip is announced from New Zealand, the imports in the aggregate will perhaps not show any great difference from those of the past year. As for the rate of consumption it is undoubtedly very large j its growth has for years been forced by the ever-increasing supplies, and no further expansion of it can therefore be reasonably expected for the immediate future. We cannot, under these circumstances, look forward to any very sudden rise in the position of the article, but think that its present value will be firmly maintained, with a tendency to gradual improvement. Should, in the latter half of the year, a really strong falling off in the supplies become manifest, a proportionate amelioration in prices can hardly fail to follow it.