The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-16 00:00:00

Total bales
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE

25,881

The following vessels have arrived at, and departed
from Melbourne, since the date of onr last summary:—
Arrivals—Merchant Prince, from Liverpool ; Royal
Charter, ditto ; Minnehaha, ditto ; Bruce, Glasgow ; Sea
Park, Plymouth ; H.M.S. Megasra, Calcutta; Tornado,
Liverpool ; Witch of the Wave, London ; Rodney, Ply-
mouth, Sultana, Liverpool ; Alice Walton, ditto ; Eagle,
London ; Macanley, Liverpool ; Exodus, ditto ; Empress
Eugenie, ditto ; Princess, London ; Ocean Traveller, ditto;
Jennie W. Paine, ditto; Augusta Aurora, Bristol; Sara-
cen, London ; James Booth, Liverpool ; Wellfleet, Lon-
don; Laughing Water, ditto ; Hamilton C. Kidston,
ditto ; Coldstream, ditto.
Departures—Maidstone, for London ; Emeu (s), Suez ;
Child of the Regiment, Emily Farnum, and Anglo-Saxon,
Callao; White Sea, and Evangelist, Valparaiso; Agnes,
South Sea Islands ; Hope, Rangoon ; Shamrock, Guam ;
Norfolk, London ; Queen of the East, and Clarissa Bird ;
Callao ; Siam, Calcutta ; Esmeralda, Callao; May Queen,
Cowes; Sir Charles Napier, Guam ; Formosa, Calcutta ;
Royal Charter (s), Liverpool ; Caractacus, Callao.

(Prom the Melbourne and Victoria Journal of Odunnuree,

of April 14.)

In our last month's summary we held out a slight
hope that some improvement in our import market
was at hand ; we were led to do so from the some-
what increased activity which just before the de-
parture of the mail began to be developed, as well
as from the generally entertained opinion, which to
us seemed well founded, that with a large trade in
Second-hands going on, which at the approach of
winter is from many causes greatly stimulated,
even the slightest relief given by restricted ship-
ments would at once exercise a beneficial influence.
We have to-day, we are sorry to say, to acknow-
ledge that we made a grave error, and that our
views were unfortunately wrong ; in the vast capa-
bilities of our market we have not been mistaken,
but we have been far too sanguine in believing that
either the report cf the crisis through which we
passed in September and October of last year, and
the heavy losses which were then accruing on ship-
ments, and the generally unsatisfactory value of all
British imports, or the more severe financial con-
vulsion in Great Britain in November and Decem-
ber, could dam up, but for an instant, the thousand I
channels through which, without respite, we are
perseveringly flooded with every kind of merchan-
dise by the A.nglo-Australian mercantile commu-
nity. Each single shipping house seems to have
been se;zed with the idea, that the greater the
difficulties existing in the London market, the
more incumbent it became to strain every nerve,
and to take advantage of low prices and low freights
to ship to this, at a season when all parties appa-
rently calculated that their neighbours were lamed
and hampered in their operations, and that they
alone would reap the benefit of cheap goods laid
down in a market which they fancied would be ex-
tremely buoyant in consequence of its being de-
nuded of its regular channels of supply. Even the
oldest Australian houses, who generally, but in
times certainly of infinitely smaller competition
than will ever again prevail, used to be able to
judge this market pretty correctly, have been led
away by ono of the most specious fallaciee, because
generally entertained, that can well be imagined.
All calculation, in fact, has broken down, and the
most egregious illusion of all has been that hand-
book of local speculation, " Stables' Circular,"
which has deceived all those who based their be-
lief upon the totais of export as therein given ;
which, correct enough as far as December was con-
cerned, did not provide for the contingency that
many of the early January vessels would arrive
simultaneously with those which left in the pre,
vious month, and which has had the effect of
bringing in, in one month, almost twice the
quantity of goods calculated upon. Of but,.
ter and of oats we received almost more
in one week than Stables' list showed
for all December ; and a decided improve.
went in price in these articles, which at the depar-
ture of the lest mail was felt must come, has been
put entirely out of the question by the unexpected
large lots that came to hand. We quote these two
articles as an example not so much of any very
great fluctuation to which their values have been
subjected during the month, as on account of the
prejudicial influence on business which these unex-
pected changes have on trade. Whoever now pre-
dicts a rise is as safe to be wrong as those who al-
ways believe in lower prices are sure to be right.
The result is that no dealer or storekeeper buys
largely. Their impression is that they will be able
to replace goods continually at less, and the trade
clra2s nll frem day to day unsatisfactorily and slug •
gishly, with not the least prospect of making any
single article of import but moderately remunera-
tive. Of course when trade falls off in this man-
ner, and goods in first hands are obliged to br
sold out almost in retail, the worse the business
the larger grow expenses, as it requires not only
more hands to do it, but increased outlay for
storage, by no moans an insignificant item, and
c ,nconeitantly with it a great loss iu interest of
money. To this must be added that, no doubt
from a feeling of sympathy for importers, the
banks have been renewing their race for gold, and
the price in consequence having advanced, the
excliaege is at 1 per cent. premium, whilst the rate
of discount, without any necessity, is kept up at 8
and 9 per cent. One charge and the other thus
taxes imp rte with 3 to 4 per (rent. additionally to
what they were burdened with some time back, a
very important item if we as ert that for the last
flee mouths, on an average promiscuous shipments,
of regular and suitable goods have not left in the
most favourable instances 8 per cent. clear over
charges and interest—a profit perfectly inadequate
to defray the heavy expenses with which business
here is surcharged. In making this assertion it has
no reference to any shiptients but such which have
consisted of moderately good articles, and it ex-
cludes all mention of brandies, whisky,i (id t )111,
boots and shoes, iron, powder, timber, and many
other articles which lose 20 and 30 per cent. On i
first-class brandies 15/. of a loss per hogshead on
shipmente made from last September onward is
about the average ; those whose who have gut out I
with less have managed remarkably well. Bulk
old torn, which still comes forward in every Lon-
ri ship, seems likely to sink the whole cost, unless
stailits a chance of being sold again in London if
reshipped home. What to say too boots and shoes
we do not know ; the profits in former years it is
true were larc,e but the proverb certainly applies
to them thatts never run u so quick as losses. Tho lots weelZlyosat crificed at aue p n io are something
enormous, arid
;liikers an still continually coil •
signing, led away 3l
some f doled repor.s of the
success of other i
Deals by London
vessel,, which a
Baltire nevrrsaOleanf
as
these sipped
direct from tha c, and then,_,re
;and as these
do not sell a i
well, have been pushed otr at
go l 3 which are always shipped g large quantities'
with
the loss soon becomes heavy. Strange to
ver_sar, at
the fag-end of the summer, and
arrivals in previous months, salt has lea Y
Proved large
d
coarse is worth 4/. ss. Of bottled beers the ship-
ments, and more especially of Byass', have been oil
a ridiculously large scale—a shilling per dozen
freight having apparently enticed every one into
shipping. The result is that Byass has been sold
at 9s. 6d., and that other brands scarcely sell at
all over 6s. 9d., except such as Dunphy's, Friend's,
Blood and Harper's. Of iron and ironmongery

arrivals continue extremely large ; some of the
Liverpool vessels now bring manifests in which
scarcely anything else appears. It is impossible to
obtain a proper advance for the latter, even if the
article is scarcely anything else appears. It is im-
possible to obtain a proper advance for the latter,
even if the article is scarce and wanted ; and with
every mail importers find increased difficulty to
sell ironmongery, as the trade, almost without ex-
ception, import direct, and the number of buyers
is becoming more and more restricted.
Provisions are amongst the few imports that
have been doing well, hams more especially,
which are quite scarce, and worth ls. 4d. Butter
has been up to 15d. during the month, but also
down to 13d. Oats, for the first fortnight after
the departure of last mail, were very dull, and de-
clined to ss. 6d. for Scotch. They have since
rallied, and are again worth 6s. Oilmen's Stores
have been saleable, but prices are slightly lower,
and though considered just now to be one of the
best class of imports, leave but a very meagre
margin.
Up to the hour at which we go to press, the
Columbian, which carries the English February
mail, has not made her appearance, and the pub-
lic have again to deplore that our postal arrange-
, ments are controlled by such miserably feeble
and incompetent hands as those of the Company
which pretend to carry on the mail service be-
tween Great Britain and Australia. The injury
done by the delay of the Columbian, which renders
It impossible to reply to the February letters, is
incalculable, and we can only hope that the Home
Government will give quick and practical effect
to the unanimous resolution of our Legislative
Assembly, which, on the 13th instant, recom-
mended that the contract with the E. and A. Mail
Company be at once rescinded. The colonial pub-
lic is positively now a great deal worse served than
when clippers carried the mail, as no business ar-
rangements were then made, based on regularity
of arrival and departure. As the service is at pre-
sent carried out, we have all the disadvantages and
none of the advantages of quick communication,
and such an utter disarrangement of our corres-
pondence with home as that caused by the non-
arrival of the Columbian, is really au incon-
venience of a sufficiently grave nature to justify,
even were it but an isolated case, the
forfeiture of the contract. As irregularity in
arriving is however the rule, and anything like
proper time the exception, ws sincerely trust that
we may soon hear that the contract has been again
thrown open to public competition, the more so as
up to the present the company has been likewise
singularly unfortunate in its representatives here
and in Sydney, who we would almost suppose had
received instructions to be as peremptory and un-
conciliatory as possible, as, whenever they have
come into contact with the Government and the
public, they have been as persistently disobliging
towards the one as they have been illiberal with
the other, and any change which we may get can-
not be otherwise than for the better.