COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8949, 13 January 1888, Page 4

COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Hebald Office, Thursday evening. The Customs duties to-day amounted to £483 10s lOd. There is an excellent tone all through business circles, the improvement in demand not being confined to merely consumptive branches of trade. Fruits are quiet, retail distributors being fairly well stocked from the Christmas pur. chases. Can Ilea are dull, and In imported the market is slightly easier. In the metal trade, the leading feature of the week is an established advance of £1 per ton in galvanisedjiron. Kerosene is scarce on the spot, and prices have advanced for 150 test, orders being difficult to execute. To arrive, parcels are quoted at a redaction. Business is limited to small trade lota. Teas are moving freely. Low quality ia boxes and half-chests slightly easier under the late Foochow reports. Fine teas continue to be very firmly held here and in all colonial markets. Rice is in good demand. The market is a little stiffer. The destruction by fire of the largest rice«dresslnj mill in Japan leaves the bulk of supplies for the present to come from native dressed, which is not as finely polished as when done by Europeans. In sugars the scarcity of brewers' crystals is more pronounced. Advices from Dunedin report sharp clearance of a cargo of whites from Mauritius at full rates. The extent of supplies to come from China in this directioa is unknown, but as Queens* land and Fiji are exhausted for several months to come, and the London rates are advancing, the situation is unquestionably in favour of holders. The Colonial Sugar Company, however, control the market, and evince no disposition to make a move in sympathy with the general rise elsewhere. Cornsacks are in inquiry, and it is a good sign to see they are being wanted for the mining districts to take ore for shipment. The mail advices report an advancing tobacco market in America, owing to the comparative failure of the last crop. In some oases leaf has advanced 75 per cent, on the price of last season, Manufacturers are all looking at the maintenance of high prices until next season. We give the following latest San Franoiaco reports of fruits and salmon, as under The demand for canned fruits is the heaviest and moat satisfactory ever experienced by earners. Prices are firm, and no one packer now has a full line of goods, all being short one or more varieties. The general stock is lower than for many years past at this season, not only here but throughout the United States. Indloatlons point to a large demand, and naturally higher prices after the turn of the year. Nothing can be said of salmon except all remaining here is held by one house at high figures. Fish is in rather better demand, notably in salmon, herrings, and mullet. We hear that the squadron took a fairly large quantity of the latter, and it is to be hoped that the navy purchases will be largely followed up. The advance in home freights from 20s to oo,n will be felt in the import market, and the general aotlvity of business in various parts of the world points to a sharp recovery in the carrying trade, making any fall in freights very improbable. Maize is scarce, and in good demand at Ss 6d for parcels on wharf. Oats continue steady at 2s 2d. to 2s 3d; wheat remains at 3s 9d; potatoes, £3 10a per ton. In the local produce markets, the price of butter remains as last week, 6d per lb whole* sale, and 8d per lb retail. It is very plentiful. Eggs have advanced to lOd per dozen wholesale, and Is per dozen retail.

KAURI GUM MARKET. This market is fairly active for good ordinary, bat poor ordinary and all other grades are comparatively neglected. Supplies for 11 days of January, about 195 tons. We quote : Poor ordinary, nominal: fair ordinary, 86*; best ordinary (free from swamp), 37s to 883; and East Coast (dull), 50* to 525.