COMMERCIAL.

Southland Times, Issue 3313, 1 February 1879, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

■ . : — ♦ TniES Office. Friday Evening. The tightness of money is conducive to extreme caution in commercial circles. Transactions are only being entered, into to meet current requirements, speculation being entirely absent. We quote 'flour £10 10s; bran, £5; pollard, £5; 10s ; and oatmeal, £19 at the mills. Best samples' wheat, 4s Gdtq 3s for fowls' feed ; oats, best milling, .4s to 3s Gd for feed. The rise in brandies recently established Jls ■ maintained. Other descriptions of spirits stand at last week's quotations: ' A line of Guinness' stout realised 12s 6d, and Johnson's ale ssld for 12. Building materials . are ■ moving moderately. English iron, £2G 10s ; slates, £16 per thousand . Portland cement, 18s Cd. 200 barrels of Knight's brand realised this figured Local boards and scantling command 8s per 100 feet. Shearing is well forward, and interest is becoming centred on the approaching harvest. The next few weeks will see harvesting general in this district, and fine weather will determine the quality of our grain. - Oats are mostly a good crop, whilst wheat is generally below the average. There is not a great breadth of barley sown- this season. : ' .-I* is gxaxifj^tng- to see ttm/fc-fclie l£isfc intelligence from London denotes an easier tone in monetary matters. But colonists must not mistake this to . mean anything more than the natural accumulation of money formerly employed in mercantile and manufacturing industries, and now not used therein because of then* present unprofitableness. The confidence in the colonies so generally felt in Britain up to October last is by no restored, and short employment of the working classes, together 'with strikes and reduced wages, all point to a fall in the value of our staple export —wool. The largest consumers of woollen manufacture are the laboring classes of Britain, J whose purchasing power, from causes above is seriously diminished. The money ~ accumulating in London will probably, in part, - be exchanged for Colonial Government deben-tures-and the debentures of well-regulated municipalities and harbor boards; for it does not appear that British capitalists entertain diminished ideas. as to the soiuidness of that class of securities, their want of confidence being restricted to the mercantile and manufacturing interests of the community. We opine, therefore, . that the time is near-; at hand when sound colonial secur.tiea will be again in request, and that it will be in their favor that the first restoration of confidence will become apparent. But for all that, the iinglish money market will have to be approached with rare ; delicacy, for it is to be likened to a convalescent patient— a sudden and undue shock would cause a to-be-regretted relaose. . "; . . . ; On the whole, therefore, the present pull-ip must result in the permanent advantage of the colony. Money hitherto has been obtainable on .too easy terms. -Numerous foreign loan com- : panics- existed whose prosperity meant the enhanced indebtedness of the colony. The temporary suspension of their, business is having J the salritaiy effect of teaching colonials everywhere to find the money, they want for their requirements . from amongst . themselves. If a little sharp inconvenience be sustained here and there, this will .be more than recompensed by the lessons thereby taught of caution and selfreliance. ' The amount of Customs revenue received to day on goods entered for consumption was a follows : — £ s.: d. Spirits - ... 70 11 1 Sundries 4 3 11 £74 15 0 G. F. Martin (on behalf of the N.Z. M. & A. Co.) reports : — Fat Cattle are now in plentiful supply, and prices considerably lower. Privately, we have jjlaced a draft of cows and bullocks, prime quality, at £9 10s. We quote prime 30s per lOOlbs ; medium, 2os. Fat Sheep. — Considering the season of the year, prices are well maintained. We quote prime half-breds, lls to 11s Gd ; medium, 8s Gd to 10s, and have placed several lots privately, at quotations. Store Cattle are in. fair Semand, good bullocks jneeting with ready sale, at from £7 to £7 10s ; cows,' £4 10s to £4 15s; mixed mobs, £3 15s to &i. ' We offer 100 head by auction, at the auction yards, on Tuesday, 4th February. Store Sheep are already in great demand, owing to the heavy losses sustained during last winter. Young sound cross-bred ewes would, command 8a Gd to 8s Cd. ; wethers for winter . feeding 9s. * Young merinos are very 'nrach wanted,,bufc none obtainable.'" We have just received advices of alargemoD of two -and fonrtooth crops-bredsto arrive here about-the middle of next month \ox sale, being draf ts from two of the best' flocks in South Canterbury, m WooL — We held our first sale of the season on" the 24th inst., when about 220 boles were catalogued, and 190 sold at prices, Mr W. A. Lyn, Isla Batik, again topping the sale with 9gd for his clip of cross-bred, which was in -excellent condition. - -. Sheepskins — We sold 7 bales and 41 bundlesby auction, at from 3£-d to Gd per lb. f or dried , station skins. . Properties. — Owing to the" high rates of inter-' eet and scarcity of money at present prevailing, gales are very difficult to effect. On the 23rd

we submitted the Strathmore estate by auction, bnt were obliged to withdraw it at £7 17s Gd. After the sale, however, several offers in excess of this figure were made for' a number of the farms, as also offers for the whole estate, and we are now in treaty for the sale of the property in that form. Invercargill, January 31, 1879. •'-', '