THE IMPORT TRADE. 



63 



Metals cuid Jlardiriin'. 



There is no department of trade wliicli lias slunvn .such a satisfaotory 

 response to improved cost as that of metals. For some years until the 

 middle of that jnst closing the hardware tradeof this Colony, in common 

 with that of Australia, was in a most deplorable condition. Small 

 demand, keen competition, and sacrificial prices often prompted by 

 financial straits, were few of the many drawbacks the larger and 

 sounder import houses had to contend with, and the losses made were 

 very considerable. The present year has led the hardware trade to 

 fresh pastures however, and the general character of business has been 

 most encouraging. Unfortunately stocks have run down so low as to 

 give merchants very little opportunity of recovering much advantage 

 from old low-level cost prices ; on the whole, however, the position 

 is very cheering, and this department of the import market has never 

 been in such a satisfactory condition to welcome the return of freetrade 

 as at the present. Some items have shown results far beyond expec- 

 tations ; barbed wire, for instance, has improved to the extent of fully 

 £3 10s. per ton, the present price being £14' per ton in bond. America 

 has quite distanced English and German competitors in the supply of 

 this article, and on all hands the American product has been pro- 

 nounced superior alike in quality, finish, general utility, and price. 

 Germany has retained the largest share of business in fencing wire 

 owing to the lower prices demanded as compared with English 

 manufactures, notwithstanding the efforts of ]h-itish makers to intro- 

 duce " rolled ^' as a substitute for " annealed steel drawn " Avire. 

 Continental manufacturers have also made a strong bid for the supply 

 of baling hoops, both black and galvanised. Spot values for these lines, 

 although greatly improved, are notyet up to a very profitable standard, 

 as the pi-esent ruling quotation of £7 7s. 6d. for No. 8 and £7 12s. Od. 

 for No. 10 fencing wire is fully 5s. under laid down cost. The 

 same state of things prevails with galvanised iron, ordinary brands of 

 which are worth £15 to £15 5s. in bond, although stocks could not be 

 replenished at the price. Iron bars, plates, and sheets, tees, angles, and 

 the like, have found increasing demand at higher prices. Stocks of 

 nails, Muntz metal, zinc, and similar lines have become so completely 

 skeletonised that there is every reason to believe that in spite of the 

 higher range of values ruling the import of these lines will show rajiid 

 expansion. Tinplates, too have run up to los. as their high-water mark, 

 and anything above 12s. is regarded as a certainty for some time to 

 come. Operations in this line are pretty extensive, and imports are 

 valued at £60,000 per annum. America has proved a lion in the i)ath 

 of English and Continental m.anufacturers of tools of trade and general 

 ironmongery so far as this Colony is concerned, as will be seen by tlie 

 figures given above.. In the colonies "lightness combined with 

 strength " seems to be the great desideratum in this class of goods, 

 and the '' Utili Dulci " trade-mark, which American goods seem to bear, 

 has threatened to completely displace the more familiar wares of con- 

 servative English manufactures, or the common-place goods puriK.rting 

 to be "made in Germany." In this connection too Continental manutac- 

 turers have not been slow to ado])t the names of English manufacturing 

 centres to furnish their goods with a passport to Australian consumers. 



