THE WOOL SALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2181, 19 December 1895, Page 38

THE WOOL SALES.

CLOSED WITH PIUCES HIGH.

London, December 9." .At the wool ealea there was epirifced bidding at tbe highest prices.

December 10.

At the wool sales,- tbe extreme prices b£ last Bales wore piid with an occasional advance.

The wool sales closed with the highest prices obtained for the series. During the sales 160,000 bales were catalogued, of wbich BB.QOO were sold for Home consumption, 80,000 for the Continent, 14 000 for America, and 20,000 held over.

Timahu, December 10.

The first wool $ale , was held to-day, when EBOO bales were catalogued. Compared with last year? s opening rates, the prices realise! showed an all-round rise of l^d to ljd. Halfbred brought to BJd ; threr -quartet-bred", B£4 ; crossbred,^ B^d ; merino, 7d ; Leicester - and Lincoln, 8d ; raoaa and matted, 7£d ; pieces, Bid.

Chtsistchurch.' December 13

A: little, over 8000 bsWs were offered at the wool sales to-day, the wool being somewhat brghter and lighter than that submitted last mouth. The tore of the market was decidedly firmer, merinos showing an improvement of £d to Id, and orossbreds and longwools £d as compared with the previous sale.

Auckland, Decembar 11

'I he first wool sales of the season in the Auckland district were held today. There was a large attendance of buyers, including a southern contingent. The prict s revised were good, being on the whole from fd to 1-^d per lb higher tban last year's prices. About 2500 bales were catalogued.

We have been supplied with the following memorandum of prices realised for wcol from this cfi-tiitfc at the September-October sales in London, the price in each case tbe average rats:— Morveu Hills, merino, 6d; Longslip, merino, 6£d ; Ben Oh<iu, merino, 6f I ; Otekaike, merino, 7f d ; Station Peak, m riuo, 7id ; Benmore, merino, 7|d ; Tapui, mer'no, Bsd ; Tapui, crossbred, lC^d ; Moeraki, crossbred, BJJ ; durkeefielo*, crossbred, Bgd ; Waibaorunga, crossbred^ 9f d ; Hakateramea Downs, merino, B£d ; Aviemote, 6|d. — Oamaru Mail.

The Premier has telegraphed to tbe Hod. Mr Larnach intimating that he will shortly issue instructions for a survey of the Roxburgh railway. ...

Southland Show. — Among the exhibits at this show, our reporter has 'in hid report, published elsewhere in this issue, overlooked these of the Buckeye Harvester Company. The company made a capital exhibit of their well-known binders, and in- addition to this they had a collection of Dux ploughs, an implement which lim Attracted much attention in England lately because of the excellent work' it does and its low price. Cumming's -portable forge is an interesting thing, and most be almost a necessity on a large farm.

SOUTHLAND METO3 NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) I.vvercaroill, December 16.

We have bad a week of good weather for the country, during which shearing operations have been carried on vigorously on farms and stations. Private buyers of wool are scouring the country, giving for farmers' lots from 8d to BH. aud many have bsen sold at the latter price — ho much that the quantity catalogued for the public wool sales next month will be considerably less tban last year. To what eitent tbi-t will affect tbe attendance of foreign buyers is an important question, well worth the consideration of those mott directly mteieited. There are indications that there will be a large number of applications on Wednesday next for the Merrivale Government block of land, to be offered under the Land for ibetUcments Act, notwithstanding the comparatively high rate3— viz , up to 6* per acre— that have been fixed for the best portions of it. The Liuds department say there has been bo much attention directed to this block that all other Government lauds in the district opeD for selection are being ueglected, and not for a long time has tbe demand for Crown lands been so slack as it has been for the past few months here.

Improved farm* are just now more marketable ; and so they t-hould tie cousiderint; the present bright outlook for agriculturists. .Oats in this district are quoted at 2a 2d at wayside stations, or equal to nearly 23 (>J f.o b. Bluft I am pleased to say that many of our farmers have received tbe full benefit of this big rise inprices. lam told that it would amount to tens of thousands of pounds on the quantity held by the J. G. Ward Partners' Association on their own and farmers' account when the first big jump in prices took place; and t'i ere is little doubt that had Mr Ward "been giving as much attention to his own btmntss the last season as he hos to public business he would have made a big fortune out of oats.

There was an important exnibit in the- dairy produce depaitmcnt at our A aud P. show last week I omitted to se/.d you a report on— viz., condensed milk manufactured by Mr R. C. Lindsay, of Garryowen, New Ruer. Mr Lindsay has beer! experimenting at this work for a long time past, and is so oiiiident now that he has ascertained tbe proper method of producing a first class article that he |iai patented his process throughout all the colonies. That "at the s-bow was judged by competent persons to be in every lespect equal to the best imported article. Some remarkably accurate estiihates were given at the weight-guessing competition for tbe fat stock shown at this show, and afterwards killed. For the weight of the fat cow (9001b) 132 guesses were received. W A. Tod<l (Mosgiel) and Fred Sutton (Thornbuiy), each 9001b, divided the prize money. A total of 160 guesses w«re sent in for the weight of the five fat sheep (73!»lb), and the winners were W S Grieve (Wuidniwa) 7391b, and W. A. Lo<»an (Invercargill) 7401b. Mr Alfred Baldy has been appointed a member of tbe Southland ifkttd Board, thus bringing the membership (inclusive of the chief cDmmissioner) to five, and Mr Andrew Kinross has been appointed n member of the Board of 1 aud Purchase Coinniism'ouera, under "TheLiml for Settlements Act 1594." for the Suutbland Land district.

At the quarterly meetuig of the Wallace L : Cdrjsing Committee the license granted at the auniial meeting to P. Hogan for tbe Commercial Hotel, Wiey's Bush, conditionally on the licensee effecting certa'n repairs aud improvements to the building and accommodation, was cancelled, the licensee having failed to carry out tbe order of the committee; after having had six months an which to do tbe work.

The >'s« Z«.'l .nJ Loan and Mercantile Ag«ncy Company have received reports from London on the live s'-.cp shipped from here last August in the 8 s I'uteshire. These sheep met a 'bad market, bul the quality and condition were both highly satisfactory, notwithstanding the steamer hati made an uuusually long pissage. So'ne of the sheep were sold alive at 42s 6d, but this was not considered np to their fair value, and th«i greater pait of the shipment were s'augbtered and dibpo-Cil of at Smithtield from scl to 6i'l P="i; per lb 'the sheep from this district were much more suitable for the Home market than those by the same steamer sent from Canterbury. Mr James Gordon, of the Campbell Islands sheep and cattle grazing firm, writing underdate November 30 to the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, reports as follows :—"I: — "I am glad to tell you that the sheep we took down to Campbell Itlands have done remarkably well — in fact I never svw young sheep of the class doing so well anywhere, not t^en on turnips. We had a comparatively niila winter, having only two fclighl tail* of &now — one of them about 2in, and lying on the ground a day and a-half, the other was heavier, but lay on the ground four and a-half daj'6 only from the time it began to f <Ul to whtn it w*s oomplrtely off, even on the highest tops. The greatest depth, excepting where it was driftei, was about 3iiu, therefore I thtuk that we were exceedingly lucky in this -latitude, considering the extreme old and snow tfiat wastxperieucecJ-inNew Zealand." When one of the afternoon traius last Saturday had passed out of a small btation near town it .was observed that the body of a man was lying at full length close to the rails, a short distance from the platform. The stationma3ter hurried to the spot, fearing that the man had been seriously iu iu red, but found that he was only in a drunken stupor. He had fallen unobaeived out of the train unhurt, and without br-aking a bottle of whisky he had in his pocket at the time. -

Two mote escapes from drowning occurred here last week near the jetty to young men connected with, one of our boating clubs — one through a weak swimmer venturing too far, and the other through a beginner getting beyond hi 3 depth. -. . 1 At Otautau on Thursday last a 13 yeir-oIJ son of Roderick Campbell, while bathing with tome other schoolmates, was drowned. The day was ve*y-h'ot, and it is tupposed the lad was suddenly seized with cramp. This is the third «bil'd Mr and Mrs Campbell have lost during the past few years, and much sympathy is felt in the district lor the bereaved parents.

A case invested with more than the average amount of interest, on account of the portion of the parties concerned, and arising out of the recdit City Guards Band art uui n, will be beard before Mr Poynton on Friday next. Mhe defendants are James Whyte Kellv, William Benjamin Scandrett, John Sinclair. William J. M'Keowu, Philip Henry Mohr, F. J. Hatch, and Thomas Niubet, and the charge is that they " did unlawfully assist in the managing and eonductiug of a certain 1 ttery and scheme by which prizes were gained, drawn, and competed for by a certain mode of chance — that is to say, by the drawing of numbers from a ballot-box."