CUSTOMS DUTIES AT OAMARU.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 873, 1 February 1879, Page 2

CUSTOMS DUTIES AT OAMARU.

The Customs duties collected at Oamaru during the month of January show a very marked increase over those of the corresponding month of last year, the amount for the past month having been Ll7ll lis, as against L 1145 6s 8d for January, 1878. The list of items making up the amount collected last month given below disclose one or two things worthy of a passing word or two. In the first place, it will be observed that the revenue derived from spirits amounts to more than one-half of the sum total. The next item in importancg is tobacco, on which luxury duty was paid to the amount of L2Ol 10s, not one penny of which was for sheepwash. The receipts for duty on wine were exceedingly small, and judging by

the figures before us, we must come to the conclusion that Australian wines are coming greatly into use. The duty oil the colonially-manufactured article is only half that imposed on wine imported from Europe, and it can therefore be seen at a glance that duty was paid upon nearly twice as large a quantity of Australian wine as upon other wines. Setting down spirits, wines, ales, beers, tobacco, cigars, and snuff as luxuries, it will be observed that while the tax upon neceaary articles amounted during the month to L 416 15s sd, those upon luxuries reached a total of L 1294 15s 7d. The items and the duty collected upon them during the month are as follow : £ a. d. Spirits 956 16 7 Cigars and snuff ... 24 1 7 Tobacco 201 10 0 Wine 34 1 7 Australian wine ... 31 9 7 Ale, beer, &c 46 16 3 Tea 14S 18 4 Sugar and molasses ... 104 1 4 Goods by weight ... 59 15 4 Advalorum 92 0 11 Otheritemsnotspecified 11 19 6* Total £l7ll 11 0