COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 7707, 15 February 1886, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

New Zealand Times Office, Saturday Evening. The Customs duties collected at the port of Wellington for the week ending on Saturday amounted to L 7802 4s 7d. Beer duty, LlB3 0a Id.

Messrs George Thomas and Co. report produce prices as follows :—The harvesting and threshing of oats has not yet sufficiently advanced for us to give an idea as to the prospect of present prices being affected ; it is, however, a pretty general opinion that values will rule from 3d to 4d per bushel higher than the rates and quotations of last season. At present we report light supply and demand at 2s 5d to 2s 6d per bushel. Flour still remains firm at L 9 te L 9 5s ; oatmeal, Ll 3 ; fowls’ wheat, 3s 4d to 3s Cd ; bran, LG ; pollard, LG; maize, 4s 3d ; barley, 2s 9d; beans, 3s 9d ; potatoes are easier, and as Southern centres are now operating, we look for a decrease in the present quotations. L 4 15s to L 5; onions sell slowly at L 9 per ton; hams and bacon (Canterbury factory cure), 8d to 9d ; farmers’ do, 6d; cheese, s|d to 6d per lb; eggs, of guaranteed quality, la 3d per dozen; fresh butter, Is per lb, without much inquiry; salt butter, IOJd, limited demand. The fruit market is in an exceedingly unsettled condition, and we see nothing, during the greater portion of the season, but a scarcity of supplies. The Codlin Moth Act, now rigidly in force, virtually precludes all shipments of apples and pears from the extensive growing districts of the other colonies, from which we draw supplies during the winter menths. We hope shortly to see a relaxation of the law relative to this matter. Nelson fruits have met with ready demand during this week, pears ruling from 5s to 9s; peaches, 7s to lls ; apples, 3s to Gs per case; plums, 4s 6d to 5s ; gages, ss; nectarines, 6s per half-case. Poultry, still rather dull—Geese, 6s; fowls, 3s Od; ducks, 3s 6d to 3s 9d per pair. Messrs Arthur Warburton and Co. report for the week :—Banks—N.Z., L2l 5s ; Colonial, 42s 6d : National, 40s. Insurance—N.Z., 74s 6d ; South British, 39s to 40s ; Union, 21s to 21s 6d ; National, los 9d to 16s 3d ; Standard, lls to lls 3d ; (Colonial, 5s to 5s 6d ; Equitable, Is to Is 3d. Miscellaneous—Loan and Mercantile, 95s ; Land Mortgage, 21s 6d ; National Mortgage, 22s 6d; N.Z. Shipping. 40s ; Union Steam, Ll2; Mosgiel Woollen, 82a 6d; Kaiapoi, 9»s ; N.Z. Drug, 16s 9d ; Napier Gas. Ll 3 ; Wanganjji Gas, L1210s; Westport Coal, lls; Wellington Trust and Loan, LG ; Equitable Building, L 6 3s 6d ; Wellington Gas, buyers, LlB and L 9; Gear Meat, 62s Cd; Manawatu Railway, l6s(»d.