AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5804, 23 February 1897, Page 1

AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

[" Canterbury Times'."] The wool season \x the colonies having practically closed, and the reviews of the last year's trade in the consuming countries being before us, the juncture is convenient for a glance at the position of the market. Gauged by the prospects with which lastyear opened, and which continued to iniproye until the month of April, when the highest level of prices for a considerable period was reached— about 30 per cent above the minimum ever touched for colonial wool, in . January, 1895— the { present position is disappointing. There was a steady fall from April to November, which brought prices down almost to the lowest level of the year, and subsequent fluctuations leave prices of most descriptions at the present time only fractionally higher than a year ago. The influence of the American demand has never been more emphatically demonstrated than during the past year. The spurt at the opening of the year was almost entirely due to American competition, and later on the rivalry of the States with the Continent for tlie posses- ' sion of the choicest wools led to a further advance. Then it was found that American purchases of wool and woollen goods were in excess of requirements and a collapse resulted, and its effects were accentuated by forced sales in England of wool bought on American account in London, the colonies, and South America. The Presidential election led to some speculation, which quickly died out ; and there is reason to fear that the recent improvement is due to the rejection of the tariff measure known as the Dingley Bill by the United States Legislature, which renders it improbable that there, will be any changes in the tariff before July next. Thanks to the good opening of the last yeai*, the average price per bale is computed to be about Jl higher than in 1895. It appears that the Australasian wool yield for the current season will be about equal that of 1895-96, and there is nothing — even ■in the general improvement in trade — to warrant any expectation of materially higher prices in the near future. The arrivals of colonial wool in London during 1896 amounted to 1,648,747 bales, against 3,853,337 bales in 1895, and 1,725,436 bales in 1894. Of these quantities 396,000 bales in 1896, 378,000 bales in 1895, and 412,500 bales in 1894 were "in transit" — that is, were being forwarded direct to the manufacturing districts of the United Kingdom, the Continent, or America. The quantities sold in the London sales were 1,232,747 bales in 1896, 1,454,337 bales in 1895, and 1,250,936 bales in 1894; and the stock carried forward at the close of each year respectively was 20,000 bales in 1896, 21,000 bales in 1895, and 62,000 bales in 1894. Stocks in importers' hands are thus lighter than they have been for some years past, and as the current season's production -will not be materially, if at all, greater than that of the season 1895-96 the statistical position is so far satisfactory. There is, however, no room for doubt that the purchases on American account in London and the colonies during the last two months, which have caused the improvement in the market, have been purely speculative. It is evidently recognised that a heavy duty on wool will be reimposed by the United States Legislature at the earliest possible date, and the extensive operations of American buyers have simply been made to discount this legislation — to get these purchases past the States' Custom-house before the duty comes into foree — and not to meet any visible requirement. With the return of high tariff American buying will cease, and unless some other source of strength springs up in the meantime there will be a return to the depression from which wool has suffered so long. The weakness in the wheat markets of Europe and America is somewhat unaccountable, unless it is due to American farmers losing confidence and making concessions to effect sales, or to some of the many schemes of the American speculator. The visible supply in America at Christinas was tlie smallest since 1891 ; in California, with which these colonies are chiefly concerned, the supply was the smallest since 18S8. Stocks were, however, increasing in England, owing to heavy importations and the good English crop. Beeriolun's List of Dec. 24 estimates that the stocks of imported wheat and flour in first hands were then 13,320,000 bushels, against 19,920,000 bushels a year previously, or a decrease of 6,600,000 bushels. The quantity afloat, however, amounted to 24,136,000 bushels, against 18,552,000 bushels, or an increase of 5,584,000 bushels. The estimated stocks in the hands of English farmers were 33,003,200 bushels, against 24,742,400 bushels a year previously, or an increase of 8,260,800 bushels. Adding the figures together, therefore, the total at the ports, afloat, and in farmers' hands was estimated at 70,459,200 bushels, against 63,214,400 bushels at the corresponding date in 1895, or an increase of 7,244,800 bushels. According to Beerbohra, the total shipped from all countries to European ports, from August 1 to the middle of December, twenty weeks, was 164,344,000 bushels, against 139,080,000 bushels for the corresponding period of 1895, or an increase of 25,264,000 bushels. Of course, this early shipping leaves so much the less to oome forward between now and next July, and there would be fair confidence in the situation but for the doubt which still surrounds the Argentine harvest. Unfortunately for New Zealand farmers the present weakness in the American market, combined with a collapse in the rates, of freight from San Francisco, have enabled purchases for Australia to be made at rates wliidi liave put New Zealand wheat for the time out of demand. j The Queensland Agent-General has taken a leaf out of the book of the AgentGeneral for New Zealand, and is publishing throughout Great Britain a notification that under the Queensland Meat Export Act:— "No meat shall be shipped or placed on board any vessel for exportation to any country or place beyond Queensland, unless and until such meat has been inspected and examined by an inspector, and a certificate obtained from him to the effect that such meat is sound and free from disease." Also, that all consignors have to sign a declaration that meat shipped has been so certified by the inspector; any contravention of the Act makes the offender liable to a penalty not exceeding .£IOO. Further, that the inspector has to make an ante-mortem examination of all live stock intended for slaughter at the colony's meat works, as far as possible, in addition to the compulsory examination of " every slaughtered animal before it is removed from the slaughter-house," and that quarters of beef and carcases of mutton, frozen or chilled, must be tagged with a label bearing the official number and registered' trade mark of the meat works from which they come. By and bye, when New Zealand will have entirely lost her pre-eminence in the frozen meat trade, a similar announcement may possibly be made in regard to meat exports from this colony.