THE PORT OF LYTTELTON.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2166, 3 February 1881, Page 3

THE PORT OF LYTTELTON.

The annual report just furnished to the Government bv the Collector of Customs, Christchurch, of the trade of and revenue derived from the Port of Lyttelton, together with the expenditure incurred in the working of and administration of the same in 1880 contains much valuable information.

The imports were of a value of £1, 244,068, their value in 1879 was .£1,579,061, thus showing the decrease of £334,993. In 1879 exports were valued at £1,279,622. Last year they were worth £1,525,416, being an increase of £245,794. It will be seen that while in 1879 our imports exceeded our exports by £299,339, in 1880 our imports exceeded our imports by £281,348. Analysing the imports it is found that goods brought from the United Kingdom were valued at £637,332, being loss by £299,334 than shown in the previous year. New South Wales sent ns £154,878 worth, being a falling off of £lll2. Victoria contributed to the total, goods of the value of £167,242, be ng £36.941 less than the previous year. South Australia, which figured in 1879 for £1950, is absent from the list in this return ; but Queensland, which in 1879 only got £lO. drew in 1830 the sum of £5772. A note to this item states that a sugar trade with that colony is opening up. Western Australia marks£23lo, as against £SOOO in 1879. From the Fijia a consignment has been received valued at £3, which is not much, and there bad been nothing in 1879. From India the imports foot up to £101,856, which is more than the previous year by the large sum of £86,993. The United States of America, though drawing from us for their goods, £70.273, do not take as much by £64,385 as they did in 1879. In imports from China there has been a sadden and large increase, t'eir account being £20,695, against £63 for the year before. Mauritius was about the same as in 1879, viz., £60.484, being a decrease of £793 only. Peru and Java do not appear on the list in 1880 at all, though in 1879 the former supplied us to the extent of £11,684, and the latter £6031. As to the description of goods brought in, the only cine to be obtained from the report is by a study of the Customs revenue which names them and gives some idea of their relative quantities and values, the duty free goods being of not great value. The items, then, paid dnty as follows :—Spirits, £66,862 I2s lid ; cigars and snnff, £3659 6a lOd; tobacco, £24,929 0a 2d; wine, £8374 Us 10d; ale and beer, £6251 llsBd; tea, 9247 2s; coffee, cocoa, Ac., £1432 8s 9d ; sugar and molasses, £13,455 14a lid; opium, £ll 17a 6d; goods by weight, £14,365 Is 7d; ad valorem, £46.186 0s Id, and other unspecified goods £10,471 19s 3d, making a total of for the {year £205,247 7s Id. The total collected in 1879 was £201,691 17s 4d, showing, notwithstanding the increase in the tariff, a nominal increase for this year of only £555 9j 9d.

To complete this synopsis of Customs accounts it ia necessary to mention that the beer dnty from its introduction in June up to the end of December, 1880, produced £7688 6s 3d, tha return ia, however, for the whole district of Christchurch. This, together with fees for publicons’ licenses, £5004 15s; auctioneers’ ditto, £1360: pilotage rates, £4587 8s 9d; port charges, £1636 10s 10d; harbormaster’s fees, £726 Is7d; light dues, £lß4l 8s 7d ; bonding warehouse duty, £775; and other smaller amounts, amongst which appears Oyster Act, fees £2 ss, swell the revenue, accounted for by the collector in 1830 to £229.422 Is 2d ; or a gross, very small, increase of some £7OOO on th-» preceding year. Toe exports of 1880, comparing them with 1879, show as follows: —Woo), £707,076, being a decrease of no less than £125.496. Tho ex plonation, we are informed, without being told the weights exported, is that the values declared by exporters in 1879 were excessive. They averaged for greasy about Is per lb. In 1880 the value was put at about 9d 3-16ths per lb. This again became incorrect after the great rise in the Home markets, when large quantities of wool in transitn were manifestly of ranch greater than declared value. Skins and hides—£l9,Bss—an increase of £898; tallow —£24.870 —showed a decrease ef £ls,24s—the greatest in any item — Grain, on the contrary—worth £663,871 showed the greatest increase, viz., the largo sum of £351,043. Flour and oatmeal did not compare so well, their valae was £so73—a decrease of £'7o3. Preserved meats —£1191—were evidently not called for, as their value showed a falling off ef no less a sum than £13,639 on the other year. Dairy Produce—-£6950 —• was in greater favor, its value being increased to the extent of £5508. Under Miscellaneous — £3s,s96—there was an increase of £18,549. The total value of Homo, that is. Colonial Produce exported fer tha year was £1,461.482, being an increase 0n’1879, for the same class, of £222,914, to which has to be added an export, in reshipments of foreign goods of the value of £22,880, bringing the grand total value of increase in exports to the sum before stated, £245,794.

The number of vessels employed in the carrying trade of the port, foreign inwards, was 130, their tonnage 77,391, the number of their crews 2206, showing a decrease on the preceding year of sixty vessels, 19,314 tons and 520 men. Outwards—The figures were: —163 ships of 104,082 tons, with 2717 man, there beingtwentynine vessels less, with 7122 tons and 230 men more than in 1879. Many of these vessels arrived coastwise and departed foreign, and vice versa, which will account for apparent discrepancies. While dealing with this part of .the report it may be as well to give the statistics as to the vessels hailing from Lyttelton. There were seventy-four vessels owned and registered at the Port of Lyttelton on December 3'st, 1880. of 20,377 tons gross, being a decrease on 1879 of five vessels, grossing 285 tons. Accounting for part of this decrease is the fact that during the year three vessels have been wrecked or have foundered. Of these ships thirty-eight sailing vessels, of 1696 gross tonnage and 140 men, and eight steamers, of 330 tons in all, with 48 men, have been employed in the coasting trade. The whole of the coastwise carrying trade occupied in 1880, 1593 vessels, of 260,252 tons capacity, manned by 18,735 men, which was the considerable increase on 1879 of 88 vessels, 18,913 tons, and 2771 in crews. Outwards there ran 1562 vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 233,532, and worked by 18,269 seamen, being more by 96 bottoms, of 6317 tons and 2676 men. Four sailing vessels, grossing 677 tons, with 28 men, have been running partly homo and partly foreign, and 27 vessels (sailing) of 17,847 tons, with crews in the aggregate 0f. ( 563 men, have been sailing foreign only during tho year, vessels which in that period have been burnt, wrecked, transferred to other colonies, or have fouodered, are also included in this last return. Details as to passenger traffic follow naturally the above particulars. In 1880 there arrived 1159 males and 957 females, being 2008 males and 1383 females fewer than had been brought to our shores in 1879. The departure is chronicled of 261 males and 141 females, being more by 9 males and 3 females than were registered in 1879. The maintenance of the department, which has the control for revenue purposes of the growing trade of the port, of course, entails a considerable expenditure, which does_ not appear in tho report under review. Many items, however, necessitating cash payments are duly noted. They comprise a miscellaneous lot of expenses, among which are “ drawback Customs duties,” .£303 14s 6d ; “ rewards smuggling.” presumably payment to informers, £46 13s 4d. An important and seldom heard of item appears as “Kabbit Nuisance Act, bonus on skins exported, .£555 10s 6d,” and other charges too numerous to particularise, bringing up the total so expended to .£BO2B 7s lid during the year, as against £5720 14s 6d in 1879. More curious than useful to the general public is Iho memo which ends the report. It names no fewer than fifteen different accounts, to the credit of which the collector has to pay sums on account of revenue fees collected for the various counties and boroughs in his district.