LYTTELTON. [From the Lyttelton Times, June 10.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 932, 8 July 1854, Page 3

LYTTELTON. [From the Lyttelton Times, June 10.]

We are enabled this week to lay before our readers some interesting financial returns, extracted from the Government Gazette of May 31st. These returns are satisfactory, so far as they go, in shewing that the trade and resources of the Province are steadily increasing. It is to be regretted that the quantity and value of one of our great staple exports viz., wool, cannot be stated accurately. The Collector of Customs remarks on this subject, " During the year 1852, the wool grown in the Canterbury district, was conveyed coastwise (to Wellington chiefly) for final shipment. It will go, therefore, to swell the official return of exports from the last port of clearance. As much of the wool is shipped from sheep stations on the coast direct to Wellington, and no account of it is rendered at this Custom House, it would be impossible to draw up any return of wool export which would show the real produce of the district. The clip for the season of 1553-4, will not be worth less than £14,000 in value." With this explanation the comparative value and quantity of staple articles the produce of this Province, exported in the years 1852 and 1853, will appear as under. In 1852 — omitting the wool — the exports are returned at only £505, but nothing is returned in that year from Ak aroa ; whereas in 1853, the exports of produce from, the two ports are valued at £3,337. They consist chiefly of sawn timber and hx>U6e frames, potatoes, oats, and cheese. The goods imported in 1852 are valued at £52,863, whilst in 1853 they are valued at £75,864, or nearly half as much again as in the previous year. Notwithstanding this increase of imports, the tonnage of vessels entered inwards at the ports of the Province seems to have fallen off, having nmounted in 1852 to 9,085 tons, and in 1853 to 7,526 tons. This is probably to be explained by the arrival of more passenger ships ia the former year. The returns for the first quarter of the present year, however, give a large comparative increase, 23 vessels of an acoreffate measurement of 4,905 tons having arrived during that period. Coming now to the present year, the main item of the ordinary revenue, excluding sales of Crown lands, viz., the Customs, amounted for the quarter ending March 31st, to £2,192 12s. Bd. In the year 1853, the total receipts of duties for the whole year are stated at £5.821 11s. 3d., whereas if the receipts during the remainder of the present year maintain the same proportion as for the last quarter, they would amount this year to £8,770. This it should be observed is the gross amount, from which the cost of collection, and one-third of the remainder payable to the General Government, would have to be deducted. The Immigration during the quarter ending March 31. appears to have been in excess of the emigration, the arrivals in the colony having amounted to 88 persons, and the departures to 32. ■ From the above analysis of the returns before us, it will appear that the colony is steadily advancing. We see, however, as yet only the small beginnings. If within a year hence we begin to receive a regular stream of immigration from England, there can hardly be a doubt that our present condition as to Imports and Exports will be very considerably altered, and that the-surplus of our produce of corn, timber, potatoes, cheese, bacon, &c, will speedily reach an amount which will make our present returns appear quite insignificant.