COMMERCIAL.

Mataura Ensign, 29 September 1913, Page 10

COMMERCIAL.

GORE COMMERCIAL REVIEW. 'Ensign' Offioe, 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 4|d 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. Now that rain has fallen in the dry districts the prospect for the incoming . crop is more favorable. Merheaijts are diffident about speculating on the chance of Australia again coming on the market and conaider that heavy shipments will have to be made to materially affect prices. The North. Island demand is small and there doefa 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 lOd; feed oats. Is 6d to Is 9d, according to sample. Chaff.—A steady local demand exists at £3 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 duniund, but there is very little of-1 fering. Ryegrass is going off slowly, but not to the extent -merchants anticipated. THE RIALTO REPORT. Mofsre Thomas Green and Co., Ltd., report the following sales on Saturday : i Cows.—£3 7s 6d, £3 17s 6d, £7 10s calf 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 Ss 6d; ducks, 2s to 2s 3d: Leghorn chickens, Bd. Produce.—Potatoes 3s to 5s 6d per »ack, U-p-to-Date'seed 3s 6d to 6s per Sack, Spark's Victoria seed 7s 6d per "ewt, Elephants 6s per cwt; feed oats 8s 6d, damaged 3s t*> 6s .per sack; whole fowlwheat, 12s to 13s; broken wheat, 10g per sack; harleymeal, 10s 6d; pollard, lis; bran; 5s per sack; cauliflowers, 2s 6d iper sack; rhubarb, 2d to 2£d, carrots, 2s 6d per bag 2s 6d to 3s 6d per bag; maize, 4s 3d per bushel. Fruit.—Apples 3d to 3£d; pears, co;king 7s 6d, dessert 9s to lis; oranges, 15s to 16s 6d; Tasmanian apples, 10s 6d to lis 6d per case; Melbourne Jonathan 13s. STOCK SALE AT TAPANUI. A sale of stock was held on Saturday forenoon (writes our Tapauui correspondent). The attendance was good, . out buyers seemed to be scarce, sheen .were in slow demand and cattle showed , & decline in value. Three hundred hog- '. gets were offered, but were passed in at '. 14a 9d, 50 ewes and 51 lambs were sold , at lie, 3d and other pens of sheep were , unsold. Five two-year-old steers j brought £4 10s, three cows £5 13s, two . sfceera £3 Bs, cow with calf at foot £B, J and 17 head yearlings £2 15s. Many , lots were passed in, the reserves being j too high. " I Mr William Stivens' property at Dalvey. consisting of about eight acres, • was sold to Mr S. Crawford at the ' bandfiome price of £2O 10s per acre. ]

THE MARKETS. t 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 Draa sent away a few days ago coiild 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 Bunedin, although further North the stares are reputed to be carrying fair quantities. The North Island continues to keep off the South Island markets, tile 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 & 4|d to 2s sd, f .0.b., s.i., and B's at Bs3id to 2s4d, and it is resorted that these are the prices current in Ghristehurch. When all is said and done, however, business in the oat trade consumes in a stagnant condition. An Auckland broker reports as follows un.der date September 22: —"Oats show no change wnatever, and practically no fresh business is taking place. Stocks are 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 & 3d are 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 a 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 5s and upwards (sacks extra). An Auckland broker reports as follow under dtate September 26: "Ghaff —Stocks are now heavier, and prices Iwure settled down to the f .o.b. equivalent. The market is very firm, and there is every appearance of prices being maintained for some time to come. Quotations for .Southern Chaff are still 82s 6d to 85s Lyttelton and 90s Blenheim, but the demand for Hawke's Bay ohaff has caused' an advance of 2s 6d per. ton. Potatoes are coming to hand m 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, £llos per ton (bags in). Auckland advice under date Septem-

ber 22 is as follows: —Potatoes' —Stocks are quite inadequate to complete orders, and consequently high prices can be 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 453, f.0.b., s.i., for fresh, business. Most of the merchants have potatoes on order, and when these come along they will consider further purchases."

CHRISTOHUECH.

CHKISTCEUHCH, Sept. 27. Oats.—The offerings of oats are very meagre, but supplies are about adequate for the demand, which is almost exclusively local, and there is no chn.nge in prices. Gartonis really Is lid to 2s 3d; Duns Is 10:1 to 2s Id; Danish, Is 9d to 2s 2d; A'gorian, Is lid to 2s Id. Chaff. —Chaff is in isomo request, principally for the* West Coast, and sales were made on a basis o; oJ.-. 0., trucks.

> Potatoes —Owing to somewhat smaller offerings, due probably :<> farmers hein<.\ , too busily employed otherwise to make i deliveries, prices for potatoes show a slightly firming tendency, and during the week Mp 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. PER UNITED PRESfc ASSOCIATION. TIMARTJ, Sept. 27. The Soivfch Canterbury Farmers' Cooperative Association held its annual meeting to-day, there being a large attendance. The directors' reportstated that there wore 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 :>er cent, on salaries and wages, and 25 per cent, rebate on commissions (except wool). To ordinary reserves £1157 was added, making this £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 was grown, but this had not been done. 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 pastoral industry, on the other hand, were exceedingly bright. In reference to the financial stringency, the chair- j man remarked that >:o far as the association was concerned shareholders had been able to supply .all their needs in regard to borrowing. 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 of £50,000 in preference shares for the extension of buildings at branches. /

AUSTRALASIA'S WOOL CLIP. Bt ELEOTBIC TELEGRAPH'— COPYRIGHT. FEB UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION, . .. SYDNEY, Sept. 28. A corrected cable states that Messrs Dalgety and Co.'s estimate of Austra*lasia'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, Viotoria and New Zealand and decreases in South Australia and West Australia, Tasmania being stationary. The 'Sydney Morning Herald' in a rough estimate places the value at over £32,000,000.

LONDON WOOL SALES. BY ELECTEIC TELBGEAPH COPYRIGHT. PEE UNITED PBEBS ASSOCIATION. LONDON, Sept. 28. At the wool sales prices were firm and competition well sustained. Received '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 tihe fleece portions of the clips named: Wailrua, top IOJd, average 10Jd: Golley Park, lid and 10|d; Rhoborough 13d and 12£ d; Oastle Hill, Hid and 10|d; G.P.D., scoured, 15d andlSd; G.PJX, 13d and 13d. LONDON MARKETS. BT ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COPYRIGHT. PUB UNITED PEEBS 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 3a. Angle Steel.—£l2o.