The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 811, 11 May 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1871.

The returns of Customs revenue collected at the ports of the Colony during the quarter ended March 31st give a total of £171,323, against £199,693 collected during the corresponding period of 1870, showing a decrease of £28,375. The heads of revenue which exhibit a decline include the articles in which we should expect to find a falling off during a season of depression. They are as follow :—Spirits, £12,664 ; wine, £1876; ale, &c, £2130; measurement goods (drapery, &c), £10,503 ; goods by weight, £934; articles not specified, £lll3. A few articles exhibit a small increase, namely, sugar, £800; tea, £495; opium, £231 ; spirits distilled in New Zealand, £785. The increase in the two. last mentioned items is due solely to exceptional circumstances—a considerable immigration of Chinese, who are large opium consumers, account, for the larger figures under that head, and the manufacture of colonial ;

distilled spirits, being but of recent introduction, will ateo account] for tbe increase in that item of revenue. The amount gained on tea and sugar will very closely represent the increase in the population of 1871 over 1870 ; and any decrease in the consumption of articles of such general necessity would evidence a very bad condition of things. The colony has been retrogradingsincelß66 when the revenue reached the culminating point, but this backward movement was never more apparent nor more alarming than duriug the last twelve months. If the revenue of a country represents its financial powers, its power of spending money and undertaking large and reproductive works, then JMew Zealand was at no time the last decade in a position of such financial embarrassment. Foreign capital, introduced into a country, will lend, for a time, an appearance of individual and national prosperity, even when the money is expended in unprofitable directions, but the day of reckoning must come, when the borrowing powers of the colony are exceeded and interest and sinking fund have to be provided for millions that have been spent prodigally and uselessly. Many accidental circumstances contributed to the prosperity of the colony from the commencement of the year 1862 until the past few years. The Colonial Government spent the Three Million Loan; the various Provincial Governments contracted loans, amounting in the aggregate to a similar sum ; the Imperial Government expended annually a very large sum for the troops stationed in the colony, and their maintenance was also a source of very considerable profit to a large number of persons. In addition to these causes the uninterrupted prosperity of the goldfields of the Middle Island furnished a greatly increased revenue to the provinces in which they were situated, and also to the consolidated revenue of the colony. With the exception of the goldfields, all these sources of prosperity have collapsed, and the mining industry, compared with past years, also exhibits, in some portions of the colony, symptoms of decay. During six years the West Coast exported nearly one and a half million ounces of gold ; during the next six years, at the present rate of production, little more than half that quantity will be produced, while the probabilities are that the average yield will be much smaller. The statistics of the Nelson Goldfields are not more favourable. Otago during ten years has exported a total of 2,684,755 ounces of gold, and according to the shipments during the quarter ended March 31st the present yield of that province may be estimated ; at 170,000 ounces annually. Auckland, on the other hand, furnishes a very marked increase. Previous to December 31, 1870, 299,023 ounces of gold were exported from that province, while last quarter's yield from the goldfields would give a total for the present year of 336,000 ounces. The marked reduction in the productiveness of the goldfields of the Middle Island, while serving to account for the falling off in the revenue of the Colony, should also furnish a powerful argument for the exercise of the utmost prudence and economy in administering the government. It is generally admitted that the introduction of the gold-mining industry rescued the Colony from the greatest financial embarrassment, but the mistake has been to rely upon their continued productiveness, not alone to relieve the country from existing difficulties, but as affording the means of a lavish and greatly increased expenditure. We appear to be drifting into a position somewhat similar to that experienced previous to the three million loan, and the other sources of expenditure which flowed into the Colony about the same time. To how small an extent those large sums served the purposes for which they were intended is best shown by the fact that tbe Colonial Treasurer is at present negotiating a further considerable loan, the first instalment of £1,200,000 having been already subscribed. The argument advanced in favour of contracting this additional obligation is, that a judicious expenditure will open the country for settlement, thus increasing the population, and greatjy lightening individual taxation. At present, there is no indication that it will be used for such a purpose. It is a matter of notoriety that there never was so large an expenditure in the Colony as at the present time, and the Ministry evince no inclination to practice economy and retrenchment. If this is to be continued, and several millions are to be

added to our national debt to enable those in office to maintain the present large expenditure, it would have been to the lasting advantage of the colony had Mr Vogel's negotiations utterly miscarried.