THE REVENUE. [From the "Times," April 7.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 558, 20 August 1851, Page 4

THE REVENUE. [From the "Times," April 7.]

With one very trifling exception, the Quarterly Return exhibits can increase in all the chief sources of revenue. In the first andlarge&t heads this increase is in spite of considerable remissions of duty. Notwithstanding the further diminution last July, in the duties on sugar, the produce of the Customs for the quarter ending last Saturday is 115,682/., more than for the concsponding quarter last year; notwithstanding the sacrifice of the duty on bricks, the produce of the Excise is 121,063*. more ; and notwithstanding the extensive modification of the Stamp Duties, they have increased to the amount of 9,883/. In the quarter's Property-tax there is an increase of 20,3422., and in the Post-office of 41,000/. On the other hand, the Assessed Taxes for the quarter are put down 9,447/. less than last year, and there is a decrease of 25,986?. under the head of Miscellaneous items. On comparing these various heads of increase and decrease, it appears that the total ordinary revenue of the quarter has increased 272,537/. All things considered, this must be pronounced a very gratifying, not to say surprising, result. The buoyancy of the revenue in the face of last year's reductions in still more stiking in the comparison of the whole year ending last Saturday with the previous year. The reduction in the duties upon sugar, which took effect last July, and -which therefore would tell upon three-fourths of the year, was estimated beforehand to entail an annual loss of 331,073/. to the revenue. In fact, however, the total Customa of the year have increased as much as 195,299/. The abolition of the duty on bricks, which has affected the whole year, was estimated to entail an annual loss of 45(5,000/. In fact, however, the total produce of the Excise ia 332,311/., more than for the previous twelvemonth. The loss by the sweeping reduction of stamp duties, also .affecting the Avhole year, was estimated at 520,000/. The result is, that the stamps have indeed decreased, but not half as much as was expected— onJy 248,905/. The annual produce of the propertytax has fallen off G2,869/— an inconsiderable difference, pei haps, where the total amount is nearly five millions and a half, but yet one that requires explanation. The Crown lands, it is well known, are in an unaccountable state, and their revenue is put down at the fixed sum of IGO,OOO/. per annum. On the whole, the ordinary revenue of the year is greater by 245,744/. than the previous year, though the three reductions of duty last year on sugar, bricks, and stamps, were estimated at no less than 1,307,072. But for those reductions it is fair to assume that the year would have presented an increase of a million and a half. The above comparisons are confined to the ordinary revenue ; but, owing to an increased repayment of advances, the increase of the revenue

from all sources is 446,U'JZ. on the year, and 283,0.3 H. on the quarter. Against the evidence of such a return it. requires something like a monomania for making the worst of thing* to deny the general prosperity of the country, or the success of our financial system. The returns of the Hoard of Trade are continually met with the assertion that they prove nothing in favour of the home market; that an increase 1 of exports merely proven that our manufactures cm no longer find a market at home, and that foreign corn and provisions supplant native industry; but by far the greater part of the Customs, Riid the whole of the Excise, are on articles consumed in the home market, the former not interfering with British industry, the latter encouraging and proving it. "With so decided an increase of the revenue under such wholesale reduction*, it is evident that there must be an immense increase in the consumption of all the necessaries, the comforts, and the luxuries of life. Yet this increase cannot be referred to any artificial or temporary stimulus. Our railways are fast drawing to completion, and the public appear slow to re-embark in that disastrous sea of speculation. There are comparatively few great uorks in progress at this moment, and the fact of some hundred thousand "navvies" being discharged, which excited grave apprehensions while in prospect, has passed unobserved. The Great Exhibition, though it makes a considerable show in Hyde Tark, has only employed a few glassblowers, ironfoundcrs, carpenters, and glaziers, and has but quickened the operations of some ambitious exhibitors; but all this is quite inadequate to account for such a general prosperity as that indicated in the present returns. The spirit of enterprise is now working in a greater variety of channels, and more in Ihe common course of trade. This is a much safer prosperity than that which arises from the exaggeration of some one or two parts of the social economy. Five years ago the nation ran mad on the idea that it could give ten times its usual labour and capital to the devclopement of the means of locomotion without suffering inconvenience by so great a derangement of its industrial and pecuniary system. Ilence the ileeting, partial, and hollow prosperity of 1845 — 1546. Till the nation falls again into a blunder of this sort, we must beg to consider a nourishing revenue the proof of a general and substantial prosperity.