STOCK NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10786, 25 October 1895, Page 7

STOCK NOTES.

fBT TUSSOCK IN “ CANTEBBCBY TIMES.”] Tho welcome rainfall of last Thursday, Saturday night and Sunday has freshened Up the country end sot the grass growing so quickly that an improvement in the pastures is already perceptible. Thursday’s rain alone, followed though it was, in many places, by a sharp frost which blackened the clover, put heart into farmers, and at Darlicld. ca Fndr.y, there was quite a brhk demand for sheep. The improvement will, no doubt, extend to this week’s market?, and store sheep will ho longer be unsaleable. Last week’s Addington market was one of the. worst that has ever been held there, as far as business in the store department went. The large .cu'ovy of sheep in tho store pens should have been, supplemented by quite three-font tbs of those in the fat pens, and for all this quantity any reasonable pricee would have been taken, as sellers wore .short of grass. There were, however, no buyers, and only two small lines, I think, wore sold at auction. We ate face to face with the old difficulty of tho fat lamb pens at Addington being glutted with quantities that are nothing batter than stores, to the obstruction and detriment of business. When lambs in these pans, at this time of year, are sold at 4s 6rl, as was the case last week, it may be understood that there was nothing fat about them. It is time those responsible for the conduct of tho business of the yards took steps to prevent such reprehensible practices as filling the fab pens with such rubbish, which wastes more time than good stuff, and drives the fat sheep sale far into the evening. Two large mobs of young cattle from Jhe Christchurch district have gone up to Amur! rune during the last week. Cattle grazing is evidently not to become a lost industry just yet. Shearing has been stopped by the rain, but that is a very small trouble compared with the good which the rain has done.

There is a Shearers’ Union in America, and at a convention held recently the minimum price of shearing, to take effect March 1, 1896, was fixed at follows For California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and Idaho," 6' cents per head with board, or 7$ cents without board; Montana and Wyoming, 7 cents per head with board, or cents without board. The rise in the price of wool in the Australian markets has received a check, and lower .prices than those which were current before and at the opening of the season have had to be accepted. The present rates are, however, quite as high aa are justified by the position of the Home market, and in comparing them with those which were obtained a year ago it must be remembered that since that time a heavy fall occurred, and the substantial rise that baa lately been quoted was from the lowest point reached. The magnitude of the stock trade in New South Wales is set forth in an “Annual Keviaw” just issued by Messrs Maiden Brothers, Sydney. The past year, with its inauguration of the live stock export trade, rapid extension of freezing, invention of defrosting processes, chilling experiments, and the drought, has been an eventful one, and the “ Kaview” touches on all these and many other points. It •iso contains a number of illustrations of stock .trade scenes, and is altogether a very interesting pamphlet. Mr S.-S. Eallij. of Werocatah, South Australia, is well-known as a successful exhibitor of stock. He established a record the, other day at Balaklava, a show of some importance, by taking with 85 exhibits no (ewer than 86 prizes.

The strike of Sydney fat stock buyers •rose, it seems, out of a question of identifioatiou of the brands of two cattle which bad bsen condemned after slaughter. The buyer of the cattle claimed on the auctioneers who sold, them, and they resisted the claim as the brands ware not oq their list. After the strike the matter was referred to arbitration, but before the hearing the claimant found that he had made a mistake, and, withdrew the claim. SltiMly there never was a strike, upsetting the whole live stock market in Sydney and surrounding districts, on more paltry grounds. The Salesmen’s Association, however, had already made arrangements for a supply of meat to the Sydney retail batchers, -so that there was no danger of a fainine.