LATEST COMMERCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 16

LATEST COMMERCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Mail Office, Thursday Afternoon.

From all quarters comes the asauranee that the commercial prospects oftbis Colony are brighter than they have been for a long time past. Now that the worst >s known in connection with the disclosures of the .Bank of New Zealand, a more hopeful and a healthier tone prevails, and public confidence ia being restored in that institution. . J.ne general opinion is tint this Colony has seen the worst, if not the last, of the depression, and advices from Home by the b.s. Tongariro tend to show that a better market is likely to exist for our exports. . With regard tc the Bank of New Zealand shares, it was reported in the city to*day that buyers were offering £8 10a, but sellers were firm. Auckland brokers report buyers in one case at £9. The iron market is likely to have a firmer tone. A cable message received yesterday states that galvanised iron at Home has advanced 15s this week. Fencing wire is firmer and stocks are low, pending arrivals

by the Soukar and Himalaya. Both vessels may be looked for shortly. The barque Trevelyan, being now posted at Lloyd’s, the Underwriters are paying the insurances, thus about the last hopes of ever seeing het in this pbrt are gone. Freights at Heme are both scarce ®nd dear. Brokers are asking 50s for Australian ports, and shipping is hard to get at that price. Many sailors are engaged conveying coal to the West Canadian Coast for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Dalgety and Co. report on October Ist from their Newcastle (N.S.W.) office: Coal —The trade of this port has suffered a considerable loss during the past month by the action of the miners coming ont on strike. One or two of the smaller unassociated collieries have returned to work, but it is doubtful when the general strike will end ; it will take some time after work is resumed before coal for export will be available. In tereolonial requirements are now so heavy, taking in ordinary times upward of twothirds of the whole production of ooal in this district, that there will be very little left for export until the present exhausted stocks on this side are fully replenished. The frozen meat trade in London is improving, and present prices return a good profit to producers. At the present time the export from this Colony of mutton is at the rate of one million carcases per annum, and the rates yield an average return to the producer of about ISs 9d per 601 b sheep. The wheat market is still firm, and the prospects of the growing crops are very fair. The farmers complain of a want of rain to force the young growth. ■We hear from a good source that the present stocks of wheat in the Canterbury and Otago provinces are sufficiently large to meet all colonial requirements (outside export) until May next. Four large vessels • are now chartered at Lyttelton'by one firm to load shortly for London, but grain ships as a rule are Very scarce. Oats are firmer and supplies are short. . , . The wool market at Home is adverse to crossbreds, and there is a decline of Id to lsd. Thi3 is bad news for North Island sheep farmers. Merinos are Id dearer. There is little or no change to report in the grocery trade. Prices are nominal. Latest advices from Home announce that the currant crops have b en gathered well and the yield is large. Hops are still firm, and are now worth locally Is 9d. A Melbourne firm have made a clean sweep of the Nelson market, at prices which are highly profitable. -v The 4th of the month passed off fairly well, payments having been met in a manner indicating on improved state of trade. Messrs Lowes and Irons report at their sale of stock yesterday The yards were well filled with both cattle and sheep, of all classes. Cattle declined a trifle. Beef was only of medium quality, making £5 7s 6d or 14s lOOlba ; large bullocks in good condition made 80s to Sss ; medium stores, 55s to 65s ; young stud, 25s to 30s ; fat shorn wethers ranged from 7s 9d to 9s 3d ; wethers in the wool, 108 6d to 12s ; ewes, 11s; ewes and lambs, 11s to 11s 6d ; hoggets, 7s Gd to 8s 9d; pigs, 13s 6d ; horses, nominal.

THE ENGLISH HOP CROP OF 188 S. The Kentish Observer, a great authority on hops and hop growing, reports that the Canterbury grounds as a whole have suffered very severely from the unkindly weathor we have again experienced, and there has been and still is, especially in Kent and Surrey, a fearful soread of mould, which threatens in many instances to eat up every bit of hop cone on the poles. Many planters, believing thoroughly in the efficacy of sulphur as a remedy for the disease, have continued to make very liberal applications thereof, and to this action they attribute the promise which seems to be held out to them of growing from 10 to 15 cwt per acre, while their neighbours, who have not sulphured, are in absolute despair of growing any hops at all, their gardens being fairly eaten up with mould. In some parts of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex there has been a considerable increase of vermin, and many planters are washing the bine and foliage. From the Worcester district the Observer ha 3 a report of a very serious spread of blight, whioh threatens to bring disaster upon what, until quite lately, promised to be the cleanest crop in England. Against all these gloomy accounts, “we are pleased,” our contemporary says, “to be able to set a fairly hopeful prospeet as regirds the Brandings ia many parts of East Kent. These are looking remarkably well, giving every prospect of a luxuriant and abundant yield. We have seen some wonderfully good pieces in the Canterbury and Faversham districts, and from the Isle of Thanet we received the other day a branch of vory nicely grown Bramlings, whioh, we understand, ‘are a fair sample of the district. But it may be doubted whether even these grounds would be able to withstand another spell of such trying weathor as we have recently experienced. As we have already predicted, the 1888 crop must be an unusually small one ; in the opinion of some authorities it will not exceed 300,000 cwt, but, of course, all estimates for the present must be the merest guesswork.”

STOCK SALES.

Christchurch, October 10. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company report (per Mr E. G. Staveley) as follows At Addington yards to-day there were full entries of stock. There were about 6000 sheep. Fat sheep ■ firmer ; prime crossbred wethers, 16s to ' 19s 6d j mixed sexes, 14s 6d to 16s ; light weights, 12s £d to 13s 6d ; merinos, 9.a 6d to 13s 3d ; mutton, 2£d to 3d per lb.; lambs, 8s to 12s 9d. Cattle market.—Fat cattle wero quiet; heavy bullocks, LS to LlO 5s ; ordinary, LG to L 7 10s ; cows and heifers, L 4 5s to L 6 ; beef, 16s to 19s per 1001 b. Ths?e was a fair demand for store sheep and cattle ; forward bullocks, L 5 103. Pigs sold well ; stores, 15a to 183 ; porkers, 203 to 28s. Dunedin, October 10. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company report (per Mr D. Stronech) as follows : - Cattle—ls 9 were yarded ; best bullocks, L 7 15s to L 9 15s ; others, L 3 17s 6d to L 7 10s ; beef, ordinary, 15b to 17s 6d ; prime, 20s per 1001 b. Sheep —2592 were yarded j best orossbred wetherß,

16s to 20s 3d ; ordinary, 12s 6d to 15s. 6d ; best crossbred ewes, 15s 6d to 17s 6d ; ordinary, 12s to 14s 6d ; merino wethers, 10s 9d to 13s 6d ; mutton, 2Jd to 2Jd per lb. 259 lambs, 3s to 12s. Pigs—only 63 were penned, quotations same as last week.

KAYE AND CARTER’S WEEKLY REPORT OF THE CHRISTCHURCH GRAIN AND PRODUCE MARKET. Wheat—Tuscan, 3s S^d; Pearl, 3s 8d ; Hunter’s, 3s 7-Yd, firm. Fowlwheat—Good whole, 3s to 3s 3d ; broken, 2s 6d. Oats— Milling, 2s 4d ; bright short, 2s 2d and 2s 3d; duns, 2s Id ; black * Nubians,’ 2s 3d ; Danish, 2s and 2s Id. Barley—Prime seed Chevalier, 4s 8d ; Cape, 3s ; malting, 4s 4d ; feed, 2s Sd ; pearl, £2O. Peas—Prussian blue peas, 2s lOd ; white, 33; dun, 3s ; partridge, 3s; split, £l4. Beans—Good whole, 2s lOd; medium, 2s 9d. Flour— Roller, £lO ; stone, £S 10s and £9. Bran—--72s 6d ; sharps, 70s ; pollard, 70s. Oatmeal (in 25's), £lO 10s ;in 7’s, £l2, Ryecorn, 3s 6d. Linseed, £l4 103. Ryegrass — Machine dressed, 3s and 3s 3d ; farmer’s lots, 2s 6d. Cocksfoot—Heavy dressed, 3£d medium, 3id. Oat-sheaf chaff, £3 ss. Hay (baled), £3 15s. Hops, lid and Is, f.o.b. Nelson. Honey, 4d. YVhite olovor, 65s and 70s ; red clover, 55s and 60s ; Alsyke, 70s and 75s ;. cowgrass, 60s and 65s ; English cowgrass, Sss ; Timothy, 48s. _ Potatoes— Prime Derwents, 70s; Bath kidneys, Magnum Bonums, lapstones, and flukes, 60s. Onions, £6 ; carrots, 40s; Swedes, 40s. Cheese—Loaf, od ; medium, Hams, bacon, 6fd ; H and B, 7d. Lard (in bladders), 4£d. . The above prices current are all f.0.b., Eyttelton ; sacks and packages extra, except when otherwise specified.