COMMERCIAL.

Mataura Ensign, 29 September 1913, Page 8

COMMERCIAL.

GORE COMMERCIAL REVIEW. 'Ensign' Office, September 29, 1913. . Oats.—There has been a fair amount of business in grain during the week, but prices are easier owing to the 'imited demand. A few thousand sacks of A and B grade Gartons have been sold to Australia for October delivery at 2s and 2s 3d, f.0.b., s.i., Bluff, less brokerage, but this demand—caused by dry ' weather in parts of the Commonwealth —has evidently been satisfied. Nov. r that rain has fallen in the dry districts the prospect for the incoming . crop is more favorable. Merhcarjts are diffident about speculating on the chance of Australia again coming on the market and consider that heavy shipments will have to be made to materially affect prices. The North. Island demand is small and there doe& not seem to be a chance of shipping to England. Current prices are. A Gartons. Is lid; A Sparrowbills, Is 10£ d; B grade Is 10d; feed oats. Is 6d to Is 9d, according to sample. Chaff.—A steady local demand exists at £'J> 10s for prime quality, inferior being unsaleable. In other produce lines business is dull. Potatoes are offering freely at £2 10s, but there are no buyers. Fowlwheat is in doniand, but there is very little offering. Ryegrass is going off slowly, but not to the extent merchants anticipated.

THE RIALTO REPORT. Messrs Thomas Green and Co., Ltd., report the following sales on Saturday : I Cows.—£3 7s 6d, £3 17s 6d, £7 10s oaJf 31s. Pigs.—Suckers, l}s to 13s 6d; weaners, 17s to 18s 6d; slips. 20s to 265. Poultry.—Hens, Is 7d to 2s; cockerels, 2s to 2s 3d; roosters, 2s 6d to 3s 6d; ducks, 2s to 2s 3d: Leghorn chickens, Bd. Produce.—Potatoes 3s to 5s 6d per sack, Up-to-Date seed 3s 6d to 6s per *ack. Spark's Victoria seed 7s 6d per cwt, Elephants 6s per cwt; feed oats 8s 6d, damaged 3s to 6s per sack; whole fowlwheat. 12s to 13s; broken wheat, 10s per sack; .barley meal, 10s 6d; pollard, lis; bran; 5s per sack; cauliflowers, 2s 6d per sack; rhubarb, 2d to 2-J-d, carrots, 2s 6d per bag; parsnips, 2s 6d to 3s 6d per bag; maize, 4s 3d per bushel. Fruit.—Apples 3d to 3£d; Dears, corking 7s 6d, dessert 9s to lis; oranges, 15s to 16s 6d ; Tasmanian apples, 10s 6d to lis 6d per case; Melbourne Jonathan I 13s. : STOCK SALE AT TAPANUi. A sale of stock was held on Saturday forenoon (writes oar Tapanui corresEradent). The attendance was good, ut buyers seemed to be scarce. s>heep .were in slow demand and cattle showed & decline in value. Three hundred hoggets were offered, but were passed in at 14s 9d, 50 ewes and 51 lambs were sold ftt lis. 3d and other pens of sheep were unsold. Five two-y ear-old steers brought £4 10s, three cows £5 13s, two steers £3 Bs, cow with calf at foot £B, and 17 head yearlings £2 15s. Many lots were passed in, the reserves being too high. Mr William Stivens' -property at Dalvey. consisting of about eight acres, was sold to Mr S. Crawford at the handsome price of £2O 10s per acre.

THE MARKETS. , DUNEDIN. PEE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, Sept. 27. Good rains in Australia have had. the effect of stopping any further inquiries for. oats from that quarter, though the prices realised for the quantity which Was sent away a few days ago could not have been too satisfactory to New Zealand sellers. There are not many offerings of oats from the country at the present time, and not much in store at Itoinedin, although further North the stores are reputed to be carrying fair quantities. The North Island continues to keep off the South Island markets, the mild weather experienced there during the winter and the early spring no doubt accounting to a large extent for the absence of demand from this quarter. A Gartons may be quoted here at 2s 4Jd to 2s sd, f.0.b., s.i., and B's at 2b 3Jd to 2s 4d, and it is reported that these are the prices current in Christchurch. When all is said and done, however, business in the oat trade continues in a stagnant condition. An Auckland broker reports as follows unjcter date September 22:—"Oats 6how no change whatever, and practically no fresh business is taking place. Stocks •re sufficient to meet the demand, and buyers here cannot be tempted to come on, the market. A to good £3 10s to £3 ss; inferior, £2 5a 3d aTe the ruling quotations to-day." Arrivals of prime quality chaff are on the light side, and as a consequence •11 consignments have a ready sale, ex truck. Medium-conditioned lots are •ow meeting with a better demand, and • considerable quantity of this grade has gone out of stores this week. Prime heavy oaten sheaf realises £4 to £4 ss; medium to good, £3 5s to £3 10s; inferior, £2 5a and upwards (sacks extra). An Auckland broker reports as follow) under dlate September 26: —"Chaff —Stocks are now heavier, and prices hare, settled down to the f.o.b. equivalent. The market is very firm, and shere is every appearance of prices being maintained lor some time to come. Quotations for .Southern Chaff are stili 82s 6d to 80s Lyttelton and 90s Blenheim, but the demand for Hawke's Bay chaff has caused: an : advance of 2s 6d per ton. Potatoes are coming to hand la quantities, there is, however, no alteration to record in prices. Prime ■table sorts, £2 10s up to £2 15s; medium to good, £2 to £2 ss; inferior, £1 10s per ton (bags in). Auckland advice under data Septem-

ber 22 is as follows: —Potatoes—Stocksare quite inadequate to complete orders, and consequently' high prices can bo obtained for potatoes on the spot —72s 6d, c.i.f., s.i. Owing to the uncertainty of space being obtainable buyers cannot see their way to give more than 45a, f.0.b., s.i., for fresh, business. Most of the merchant? have potatoes on order, and when thesy. come along they will consider further purchases." CHRIST-CHURCH.

CHKISTCELTIICH, Sept. 27

Oats. —The offerings of oats are very meagre, but supplies are about adequate for the demand', which is almost exclusively local, and t!ii:re is no change in prices. Gartons Duns Is 10:1 to 2.; Id; Danish, Is 9d u> 2s 2d; Algerian, Is lid to 2s Id. Chaff. —Chaff is in nomo request, principally for the West Coast, and sales were made on a basis o; »)■■ 0,, trucks. Potatoes —Owing to somewhat smaller offerings, clue w-obably i<> farmers being too busily employed otherwise to make deliveries, prices for potatoes show a slightly firming tendency, and during the week 'up to 27s 6d was paid for table potatoes. Orders from the North Island are gradually becoming smaller. Seed tubers are not in request, and it is difficult to quit at any price. FARMERS* CO-OP. ASSOCIATION.

PEB UNITED PBESfc ASSOCIATION. TIMAItU, Sept. 27. The South Canterbury Farmers' Cooperative Association held its annual meeting to-day, there being a large attendance. The directors' reportstated that there were now 3389 shareholders. Ordinary capital paid up amounted to £95,000 ; preference, nearly £75,000. The total turnover for the past year was nearly £1.250,000. The net amount for distribution was £35,223. A dividend was declared of six per cent, on preference shares, a bonus equal to 8 per cent, on ordinary capital, a bonus of 6 per cent, on store purchases, 5 ner cent, on salaries and wages, and 25 per cent, rebate on commissions (except wool). To ordinary reserves £1157 was added, making this f £60,000. The chairman (Mr John Talbot) in his review of the year, mentioned that the book value of freeholds was £97,726, though they were worth much more. The employees numbered' 342 and salaries and wages amounted to £29,437. Bad and doubtful debts were only Is 8d per £IOO on the turnover. Speaking of farmers' prospects, Mr Talbot said that they had had a phenomenally fine winter and crops were looking well; but the market prospects for grain were very poor. It was desirable to ascertain how much wheat wae grown, but this had not been clone. The surplus over the Home supply should be exported, and a. small surplus retainedwould keep the price down to export values. If there was no surplus, prices would rise to import cost. The Government did not care to collect crop statistics, thought it should not be more difficult than to collect sheep returns. The prospect for oats was even worse than for wheat. Those in the pastoral industry, on the other hand, were exceedingly bright. In reference to the financial stringency, the chairman remarked that so far as the association was concerned shareholders had been able to supply .all their needs in regard to Iwrrowing. He congratulated the North Canterbury and the North Otago Associations on: their prosperity, and hoped that Southland's misfortune was only temporary. The directors' report and recommendations "were adopted, including the proposed issue ©f £50,000 in preference shares for the extension of buildings at branches. /

AUSTRALASIA'S WOOL CLIP. 81 ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH'— COPYRIGHT. PEE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. .. SYDNEY, Sept. 28. A corrected cable states that Messrs Dalgety and Co.'s estimate of Australasia's wool clip for the current season is 2,407,000 bales, an increase of 160,000 over the previous season, when the total was 2,247,000 bales, of which Australia contributed 1,718,000 bales and New Zealand 529,000. It is predicted that there will he increases in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand and decreases in South Australia and West Australia, Tasmania being stationary. I The 'Sydney Morning Herald' in a rough estimate places the value at over i £32,000,000.

LONDON WOOL SALES. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COPYRIGHT. PEE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. LONDON, Sept. 28. At the wool sales prices were firm and competition well sustained. Reecived September 29, 8.20 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 28. At the wool sales there were good offerings of greasy crossbreds and the opening rates were fully maintained. Merinos "were firm and unchanged. There were 48,578 bales catalogued and 42,752 sold. The following prices were realised for the fleece portions of the clips named: Waihua, top IOJd, average 10|d: Golley Park, lid and lOfd; Rhoborough. 13d and 12Jd; Castle Hill, Hid and 10|d; G.P.D., scoured, 15d andlsd: G.P.D:, 13d and 13d.

LONDON MARKETS. BY ELEOTBIO TELEGBArH COPYBIGHT. PER UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION. Received September 29, 8.20 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 28. Cotton.—September - October shipments of American middling cotton are clearing at 7.42£ d per lb. Jute. —The market is weak. Native first marks, October shipment, £34 15a per ton. Hemp.—The market is quiet. Good fair October-December shipment, £3O per ton. Aluminium.—£B6. Tin Plates.—£l3 3s to £ls 3s. , Angle Steel.—£l2o.

fencing Wire. —£14i>. Antimony.—£o. Wheat. —The market is steady and cargoes are inactive; 36s 3d is asked for South Australian. The wheat and flcxr afloat for the United Kingdom totals 1,795,000 quarters; for the Continent, 2,150.000; Atlantic shipments, 353,000; Pacific, 95,000. The total sliipmenrs to Europe during the week amounted to 1,490,000 quarters, including 20,000 from Australasia. THE RABBIT MARKET. 81 attfOTBIC TELEGRAPH - CCi-IRIGHT, PJSB ONITED PRESS ASfWTATKIv LONDON, S-pt. 27. The rabbit market is flat, and prices are tending downward owing to the summer weather. GORE AUCTION MART. Messrs Geo. Kerr and Co. held their weekly sale on Saturday, when there was a particularly good demand for pigs, poultry and produce, the prices realised being as follows: Poultry.—Forty-seven p«nned. Hens, Is 5d to Is 9d; cockerels. 2s 9d to 3s; cocks, 2s to 2s 6d;~ chickens, 4d to 7d. Pigs.—Thirty-three penned. Suckers, 13s to 15s; weaners, £1 to £1 4s 6d; store pigs, £2 2s 6d to £2 ss, Cattle.—Two cows coming to profit, £3 and £4; calf, £1 ss. Produce.—Seed potatoes, 2s Sd to 4s per sack; table potatoes, 3s to 5s per sack; onions, I'd per lb; cauliflowers, 180 at each; rhubarb, 6d per 31b bundle; oats, 5s 6d to 10s per sack; wheat, 7s 6d to 9s per sack; bran and pollard at market prices. Several lines of harness and farmers' requL-sites brought satisfactory prices.