COMMERCIAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12429, 21 January 1915, Page 6

COMMERCIAL.

HOME MARKETS. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] (Per Press Association.) Received January 21, at 9.30 a.m. London, January 20. At the tallou- auctions 848 casks-were offered and sold, if tit ton : Fine, 40s; medium, 345. Beef: Fine. 3Ss 9d: medium, 33s Gd. Received January 21, at 11.45 a.m. -. London, January 20. Copper—Spot, .£'6l to £6l ss. Electrolytic, £64 10s to £65. Tin —Cash, £155 to .£155 10s; throe months. £l4l 5s to £l4B 15s. Pig iron. 56s 6d. ; Lead, £l9 8s 9d to £lB lis 3d. Spelter, £3l 2s Gd to £3l 7s Gd. Received January 21, at 0.30 p.m. London, January 2ft. Wheat is quiet. Linseed oil. 26.k1. Turpentine, 37s 6d. : WOOL SALES. TJy Electric Tei > eoraph : —Copyright.] " ' Per Press Association. Received .Januurv 21, at 11.4-5 a.m. i - London, January 20. . C-ossbreds are 10 nor"cent, above December. Merinos are linn at opening .ratps with, active- competition. -Following :|rp l '"' prices" of the fleece portions of the- clip named: "Horauliniti," lold to 15-d. MEAT PRiCES. V. = THE DEMAND FOR BEEF. HIGH RATES IX OTACO. -'- (Lytte-tan Times Correspondent}. • Dunedin, January 20.

"When one considers that exporters liave iiwn seeming it very fair propu'rtion of the yarding, and when (in also takes into c:>:isi.ier:itiuii the fnc: that tliey have secured .--fVrriil linesin Otago and Southland during th: j past .f e\v days, it must '>:■ recognised that there Is every likelihood that ther;will be a fnrther di ciiied rise in tht* price of cattle in the immediati" future. Certainly, everything iioii.t : to beef being very dear curing the coming winter." ' Such was t'h:■ opinion conveyed to a Star representative to-day •Hid in view of the conditions ruling at the Burnside stock sales lately it must he admitted that it sums up the position very concisely. Never before lias competition hy exporters been so keen, and it is now somewhat difficult to determine their limits. Ilecvntly .several lines of between sixty and seventy head of prime bullocks were secured in Otago and Southland at something like 41s per IOOIh, but at this week's sales at Burnside business must have been done in prime beef at 42s 6d at least, whilf some went as far as to say that on? representative of a big export firm ha-1 "a- limit of 4os. What the limits wii; be in the future is only a matter of conjecture, but on the word of a leading butcher, they will he very close to 50.-; per 1001b, which will probably b the signal for ait increase in the retail price cf meat. "So far as the increase in prices i-, concerned," declared the gentleman r-itedi above, "there is iiot the sani "• number of cattle in the oountrv a< there was a good many years ago. "Ever since the bursting '-p of the iarge es. tates, fully ten years ago. cattle havi been getting dearer. On those larga estates a great deal of breeding was gone in for and cattle were reared and then sold to the grazier, who fattened them for the market. The large estates were cut up into small holding; and many of the farmers who now oc cupy them have gone in for dairy farming as against cattle raising. From the actual monetary point of view the output of these stations would be greater than it was previously, but so far as beef alone is concerned the cattle are not being produced in such large numbers as .formerly. The farmers have devoted their attention to butter and cheese instead. The same remarks apply to sheep to a certain extent."