COMMERCIAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8966, 17 April 1890, Page 2

COMMERCIAL

New Zealand Times Office, Wednesday Evening, The trade of the past month is reported on all aides to have been of a very quiet nature. The interruption of the Easter holidays seriously interfered with the ordinary routine of business. This being the usual dull season, the first commencement of the colonial winter, trade is always at its lowest ebb. The check in the hemp trade, so many of the mills closing down, and throwing several hundred men and boys ont of employment, has had a serious effect in the milling districts. There is, however, a fair demand for ordinary labour all over the Colony, so that the hemp.mil! hands will not have much difficulty in finding work. The mining districts are now busy again, general rain having fallen all over the Colony. For months past the dry weather has put a stop to many sluicing claims on the gold fields, and where batteries are worked by water power very little work has been done. Daring the last fortnight the rains (have permitted the ordinary battery and sluicing work to be resumed. There .is hut little change to report in the wholesale

trades. Candles and kerosene are in better demand, and a firm market is maintained for both. A steady demand exists for sugars, and ordinary trade lota are taken up (whites) at £29 10a to £3O. Dried fruits are slow of sale. Currants are dull at 4fd. Bletnes are not in large supply, but 6|d per lb is about the ruling quotation. Sultanas are hardening in response to English advances, and a/e held at 6£d to ofd per lb. Rice is firm, Patna being worth from £2O to £2l per ton. Dressed Japan is low in stock, and ie worth up to £24. The metal market is fairly brisk. Galvanised sheets are worth £24, and fencing wire at £l3 10s to £l4. Barbed wire is worth £25. Cement is in moderate demand, and averages 16s per barrel. Hudson’s extract is scarce in some quarters. Summer lines—such as cornflour, starch, limejuice, claret, fish, etc., have slackened in sales, owing to the break np_ of the drought and winter weather setting in. The drapery bouses are busy with the sale of winter goods, and English-made woollen materials are moving off freely. Paint oils are in good demand, raw and boiled oils fetching 3s 2d to 3s 3d per gallon ; oolza is low in stock, and is worth 3s lOd. _ Recent advices from Calcutta report a stiffness in the castor oil market. The new season’s tea market at Foochow and Calcutta will not open till the beginning of Jane. In liquids, there is a better demand for best brands of: bottled beers. Spirits are fairly well stocked, and prices are_ nominal. The building trade is fairly brisk, and the demand for land keeps up both for building purposes io the towns and suburbs and for settlement in country districts. Labour is in good demand everywhere, and.very few men are out of employment. Freeman R. Jackson and Co. s Johnsonville stock report.—The supply of fat cattle was belo <v market requirements, qualityfair, and weights, with the exception of a few animals, barely medium. There was a decided spring in prices from the very opening of fully 3s the 1001 b over last market rates, closing firmly at 18s the lOOlb, A few light but choice heifers shared in the advance at relatively the same rate. Of sheep there was only a small entry, almost wholly composed of ewes. The weight and quality ranged from indifferent to medium. Prices advanced at least 1s per head upon late quotations. A small entry of pigs, all good sorts, sold on a par with recent prices. Bullocks, £5 2s 6d to £7 6s, averaging £5 17a 9d to £6 6s; heifers, £4 7s'6d to £4los. Sheep-Wethers, 11s Jld ; ewes, 9s 3d to 10a 4d; shorn lambs, 6s 9i to 8s 2d. Ox beef, 18s the 1001 b; heifer, 15s ; wether mutton, 2£d ; ewe do, Ifd to, 2d. Mr D. T. Sfcuartreportsontheshaiemarket for week to date;—Banks—New Zealand, old issue, sales £4 5s and £4 4s, new issue, sellers 80s ; Colonial, 41s 6d to 42a 6d, Insurance—Colonial, sales 6s 6d ; National, 17s to 17s 6d ; New Zealand, buyers 65s 6d ; Standard, 13s 3d to 13s 9d, ex ; Union, 25s 6d to 265. Financial—New Zealand Loan and Mercantile, 60s; Land Mortgage, 14s to I4s 6d ; Equitable Building of Wellington, sellers £7; Wellington Building, sales £6 7s 6d; Wellington Trust and Loan, £6 10s. Sundries—New Zealand Shipping, 80s ; Nevy Zealand Drag, 18s 9d to 19s 3d ; Wanganui Gas, £ll 10s; Napier Gas, buyers £l3 15s, sellers £l4 ; Westport Coal, 60s ; Gear Meat, sales £5 ; Wellington Woollen, late sales 355, sellers, 42s ; Manawatu Railway, sales 15s ; Wellington Gas, £l4 10s and £7 ss,