Commercial Record.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1671, 23 April 1862, Page 2

Commercial Record.

OTAGO. [From the “ Colonist," April 5.] No material change is observable in our markets. Business generally, as before staled, has been dull and inactive. Breadstuffs have a tendency to advance in price. Good flour is becoming scarce, while there is a large supply of inferior quality on hand. Prices are firm at £lO to £l7 10s. Wheat, ss. per bushel. Oats, ranging from 3s. 6d, for infeiior samples, to os. for best colonial. Maize, Bs. Bran,'limited supply, 2s. 2d. Sugars are firm at last quotations. Teas, £7 10s. to £9 per chest. Salt, £7 per ton. Oilmen’s stores generally are saleable at good prices Provisions are still in good demand, and command fair rates Beef, sale, efc‘4 per tierce. Mams, Is. to Is- 3d. Better, Irish 6d to 10d; Colonial, Is SJ. Cheese : the market is glutted* prices nominal. In fruit there is a slight improvement: the supply is tolerably good, and prices fully maintained. Heretofore the expenses connected with importing have been excessively heavy, recently, however, some reductions have been effected in the rate of lighterage and cartage. Lighterage from. Port Chalmers is now 17s. per ton ; from vessels in Dunedin, ss. Cartage to the diggings, 13s. to 15s. per cwt. The building trade still continues active, although the weather has materially iniefered with the progress of new erections. The price of material exhibits no tendency to decline. £ and 1 in. boards are in demand, and average from 255. to 30s. per 100 ft. superficial. Planking—9 x 3 and 11 x 3 in demand. Australian hatd woods are plentiful. Of spars and rickers there is but a limited supply, and they are in demand. Shingles are scarce, and worth from 235. to 20s. per thousand. Coals have been very scarce ; recent arrivals have brought a small supply, but not adequate to meet the demands of ordinary consumption. The “ Lady Barkley” and the “ Aldinga" have both been detained owing to the difficulty of obtaining fuel. [From the “ Daily Times.” April B.] During the past week we have had bad weather, which has very much affected business, and but few transactions have taken place for the country. The town trade is also of a very limited nature, and whilst stocks of most goods in the hands of wholesale houses arc heavy, retailers buy in very small parcels, and only for actual wants. There is no disposition to speculate in any article, and it is generally expected that the present dullness will continue to prevail during the winter months on which we are now entering. The decrease of population on our goldfields, which has resulted in a smaller yie d of gold, has caused a gloomy and anxious feeling, and the present bad state of the roads must tend to defer any other than such purchases as are absolutely necessary being made for the mines. In our money market there has been some stringency felt, and the Banks seem rather inclined to contract the facilities usually afforded. We have before noticed the determination evinced by these institutions to repress any over trading, as far as lay in their power, a course which cannot be too much extolied, as the means of keeping the commerial atmosphere healthy, and trade sound. It is a very unfortunate matter that the community here are kept in ignorance of the quarterly returns of the business done by the Banks in this Province, a system so advantageously pursued in Victoria, and by which we should be most able to note the progress of our monetary affairs and readily judge whence any tightness arose. In the absence of such statistics, and reviewing the circumstances of the Province during the past eight months, we must acknowledge ourselves unable to account for the stringency at present prevaling, for which neither the importations of goods, nor the amount of building investments suggest adequate cause. The reason supposed by some that the banks can use means at their disposal more profitably in trading in gold, than in compassing the ordinary requirements of trade, may not be without foundation. In the goods market we have no change of values to record. The only articles for which there have been any real enquiry, are—first cliss case brandy, case whiskey, colonial butter, sound hams and bacon; but even the-e articles are taken in very limited quantities. The leading articles of flour, sugar, tea, &c., ate taken only as stocks in traders’ hands become smaller, snd at prices barely supporting recent quotations. The timber trade has not been so busy, the wet weather interfering much with operations.