COMMERCIAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18750, 2 January 1923, Page 6

COMMERCIAL.

CUSTOMS RETURNS. The local Customs returns made up to the end of the past year show a marked increase under every heading except that the net Customs total for tho year is slightly less than that of 1921. The figures are as follows: December. 1922. 1921. Customs .. .. £54,377 3 5 £31,453 11 0 Beer duty .. 18,091 8 2 15,930 610 Last quarter. Customs .. .. 173,593 510 117,435 1 1 Beer duty .. 53,727 3 3 43,600 X J Year. Customs .. .. 603,675 5 9 621,474 13 X Beer duty -- 167,283 1 9 117,659 13 10 LONDON MARKETS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 30. (Received Jan. 1, at 8.6 p.m.) Waihi shares; Buyers 35s 3d, sellers 36a 9d. Lamb: South American light, 10Jd. Frozen Beef: New Zealand fores, 4d; Argentine hinds, sd; chilled Argentine fores, 4 l-8d; hinds, 6Jd; Uruguayan fores, 4d; hinds, 5Jd; otKer moats unchanged. Cotton: Liverpool quotations, American middling upland, January delivery, 14.73 d pet pound. Rubber: Fine hard Para, 13id per lb, plantation first latex crepe, 14Jd; smoked ribbed -sheet, 14jjd. Jute: Native first marks, Decern ber-Janu-axy shipment, £35 10s per ton. New Zealand Hemp: December-February shipment, £33 10s per ton. Copra: South Sea bagged, December-Janu-ary shipment, £24 17s 6d per ton. Linseed oil, £39 per ton—equal to Ss IJd par gallon. Turpentine, 103 s 9d per cwt—equal to 7s 10d per gallon. Wheat cargoes are quiet, and quotations declined 8d to 6d. Ten thousand two hundred quarters of Australian, mid-February shipment, sold at 52s 3d. Parcels are in poor request at about 6d under .last week's rates. LONDON, December 31. (Received Jan. 1, at 5.5 p.m.) Owing to further weakness in America, wheat cargoes are dull, and quotations declined 6d to 9d. Seven thousand five hundred tons of Australian, January-February shipment, sold at 52s 6d. Parcels continue in poor request at 6d to Is below recent rates.—A. and N.Z. Cable. RECORD SALE OF STUD STOCK. A 10,095 GUINEAS DEAL. Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. (Ltd.) repqrt having completed, through their recently established stud stock department, what must easily rank as a record deal in stud stock for tho dominion, if not for Australasia. The total sum involved is £10,599 15a. On behalf of Messrs Henry Collins and Co., of South Australia, they have sold in the Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland provinces over" 690 merino sheep for a total of £5563. Since completing the sale of these merinos, they have sold to Messrs Collins and Co. 34 head of high-class New Zealand-bred' Friesian cattle for export to South Australia, at an average price approximating £l5O per head. It will thus be seen that a very fair exchange has been made between the two countries of Friesian cattle for merino sheep. Messrs Collins and Co. (Ltd.) have now purchased over 100 head of New Zealandbicd Friesians, about 60 head of which have already been eafely landed in South Australia. The next shipment is being made m January per tho Moeraki by Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co. (Ltd.). The recent purchases of Friesians were made from tlie studs of Messrs Jolm Donald (Wanganui), H. W. Hoskin (Taranaki), W. I. Lovelock (Palmerston North), Job' l Grigg (Longbsach), T. H. Overton (Lakeside), and L. R. Stoddart (Willowby). Included are no less than five championship winners and cows with butter-fat records up to 8021 b of butter-fat in 365 davs. The keen demand tor Friesian cattle from Australia is making it very difficult to fulfil local orders, but there is no doubt that this big stud will in time prove a groat advertisement for New Zealand-bred stock, as expense will not bo spared in maintaining the herd at the very highest level. OAMARU MARKETS. Tboh Odb Own Corbesponeent.) OAMARU, December 30. The weather during tho week has been more of a summer character, several hob days having been experienced, bnt without much wind, and broken at times, mostly in the evenings, by refreshing rams. There has been a great growth, and cereal crops that at one time threatened to be veiy poor now promise to yield fairly well, white a number, if all goes well to T »P ,n S will riv- really good returns. Some early oals are in a very forward state, and it is anticipated tho harvesting of these will be commenced early in the New Your. The main harvest will not be entered upon for some time, and tho longer it is delayed the better will be the yields, for time is needed to enable tho grain to develop thoroughly and give weight to yields. Tho greater part of tho week has been given up to holiday-making, and business in the grain and produce market has been at. a complete standstill. As a simple fact there is little left in tho country to handle, and brokers are moat concerned with finding buyers for barley, of which a fair amount remains to be disposed or. With an abundance of feed, the promise of good rape and turnip crops, and a smaller area under cereals, there is a good demand for sheem breeding ewes being in special request. Notwithstanding tho holidays a good amount of business has been done in this description of stock, tho sales including a number of substantial lines, foremost amongst them being a line of halfbred wether lambs, placed at 13s 6d. The greater part of the business has been done in ewes, mostly for forward delivery, many of the transactions covering lines from of 500 up to 1000. The tango of prices has been as follows: —Mixed, two, four, six, and eighttooth paddock ewes, from 30a to 32a Gd. with delivery in February and March; twotooth owes, 31s 6d; halfbred sound-mouthed station ewes, for February and March delivery, from 25s to 27s 6d. Other sheep sales have been as follows: Mixed six and eight-tooth, with lambs, 22s 3d, sjl counted; failing-mouthed ewes, with lambs, 20s, all counted; mixed four, six, and eight-tooth station wethera, from 20s to 225, off tho shears; two-tooth station wethers, 17s to 18s 6d, off tho shears. There has been practically nothing doing in cattle, the only transaction reported being the sale o£ a small line of fat and forward bullocks at £6 10s.