CUSTOMS AND BEER DUTY REVENUE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2652, 6 October 1882, Page 3

CUSTOMS AND BEER DUTY REVENUE.

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[FBOM THE ‘'PBBSS.”] WELLINGTON, October 5,

I am in a position now to state the exact result of the half-year’s operations. So far as two items of revenue are concerned I am glad that I am able to give a very satisfactory account of the first half of oar financial year. And, first, as to customs. It will be remembered that when the customs last year yielded over £1.470,000, or £130,000 in excess of the estimate, many people said this was a mere temporary spurt, or due to exceptional causes not likely to be persistent, and when Major Atkinson in his last budget estimated the customs for the current year to bring in £30,000 more than this enormous sum, or a million and a half in all, be was said to be over sanguine, and to be over-estimating the probable revenue with an eye to New Zealand’s credit in view of fresh borrowing. Well, wa now con judge the value of his calculations, and here are the corrected figures. In the month of September, 1882, the customs produced £140,093, as compared with £137,170 for August, 1882 (an increase of £2932} and as compared with £118,862 for September, 1880 (an increase of £21,230). So much for the month, and next as to the quarter. If all the quarters were equally prolific on an average it would be convenient to estimate the average of each at a fourth of the year's total, vis.:—£375,000, but experience demonstrates that there is a marked difference in this respect, and that the June quarter of the year (the dead winter quarter) is a dull one for trade. Thus, although the customs for the past quarter of this year (ended 30th Jone) fell some £28,000 short of the average estimates thus calculated, this was not at all a bad result as the various quarters go, and so nobody possessing any acquaintance with the matter was disheartened, feeling sure that if the winter quarter did as well as that, the spring and summer quarters would certainly turn out all right, and so it has speedily proved. The quarter just expired yielded no less than £416,427, or more than £41,000 in excess of the proportionate estimate for that period, and being at the rate of £1,665,000 per annum, so when we come to the halfyear’s return we find that this large excess has not only already swallowed np the winter deficiency on the proportionate estimate for that quarter, but has a substantial balance to (the good. In fact, the Customs revenue for the half-year amounts to £762,677, which is £18,577 in excess of the proportionate estimate for the half-year—that is to say, half the total estimate for the complete year—and which, of course, represent* an excess of £25,000 for the year if the remaining half-year doe* not give better results; but, judging from experience, I should say the excess is much more likely to be over the fifty thousand than under it. You see from these figures that my favourable forecast has been more than fully verified.

The other item, which alone is yet complete, is the beer duty. Ibis amounted to £5293 for September, 1888, which is £IOOO more than the preceding month, and £760 more than for September, 1881. For the quarter the duty produced £13,597, and for the halfyear £27,825. The estimate for the whole year was £60.000; so if we assume that the first half-year would yield as much at the second, the result would be £2174 short. But as wo all know that people do not drink so much beer in winter as in summer, and therefore that the summer and and autumn quarters are greatly the most profitable, it is plain that the figures above given are very encouraging. Indeed, I may say that the actual estimated yield for the first half year was only £25,000 as against £35,000 for the second (or beerdrinking) half. Thus the tax has really given £2OOO to the good, instead of falling short. I think the colony may fairly be congratulated on those agreeable results of the operations for the first half of the current year, and I have every reason to believe that stamps and other items will show almost equally well, although railways are undoubtedly a little behind at present.