The Revenue. (From the Times, April 7)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 432, 19 August 1851, Page 3

The Revenue. (From the Times, April 7 )

With one very trifling exception, the Quarterly Return exhibits ' an increase in all the chief, sources of revenue. In the three first and largest 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 E last Saturday is £115,682, more than for the corresponding quarter last year j notwithj standing the sacrifice of the duty on bricks, the produce of tbe 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 £20,342, 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 rthe revenue in the face of last year's reductions is still more striking in the comparison of the whole year ending last Saturday with the previous year. The reduction in the duties upon sugar, which took feflect' last July, and which thefefoie would, toll 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 Customs 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 £456,000. In fact, however, the total produce of the Excise is £332,311, more tban for the previous twelvemonth. The loss by the sweeping reduction of stamp duties, also affecting the whole year, was estimated at £520,000. The result is, that the stamps have indeed decreased, but not half as much as was expected — only £248,905. The annual prodace of the property -tax has fallen off £62,869 — an inconsiderable difference, perhaps, 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 £160,000 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 £1,307,073. But for those reductions it is fair to assume that the year would have presented an increase of a million and a half. Tbe above comparisons are confined tp the ordinary revenue ; but, owing to an increased repayn.eat of advances, the increase of the revenue from all som ces is £446,119 on the year, and £283,051 onthe quarter. "" Against the evidence of such a return it requires something like a monomania for making the worst of things to deny the general prosperity of the country, or the success of our financial system. The returns of t^e Board .of. Trade are continually met with the assertion that they prove nothing in favour of the home market ; than an increase of exports merely proves that our manufacturersvcan 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, and 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 reductions, it is evident that there must be an immensne icrease 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 works 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 Park, has only employed a few glassblowers, ironfounders, 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 the common course of trade. This is a much* safer prosperity than that which arises from the exaggeration -of some :>ne 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 development of the means of locomotion without suffering inconvenience by so gr^pat a derangement of its industrial and: pecuniary system. Hence the fleeting, partial, and hollow* prosperity of 1845-1846. Till the nation falls again into a blunder of this sort, we must beg to consider jl flourishing revenue the* proof of a general and substantial prosperity. - : — -^_o- **-

' Wokderful Improvementl— A complimentary dinner was given in New York, on the 29th of "January, to Colonel Hop, the enterprising iuventor of the new lightning Printing Press, for the office of the • New York Sun.' This new press, is the largest and fastest in" the world, and issues impressions at the rato of 20,(|00 in an liourf What would Franklin say "to t!ii«, couWiie' again view the sqt-ne of his former labors? * " " v -

Tiik Precious Metals.—The facts avail1 >lo regarding the precious metals are so lim- ' ' i \ that they may be summed up in a few lines. The latest estimate, or rather guess, r < to the specie in circulation in the civilised ;v tW, has been £340,000,000. At the beginning of the present century it was believed that the total annual yield of gold mil silver in America, Europe, and Northc/n Asia, was £10,250.,000. This increased »".i to 1810, after which, owing to the War o: Independence, there was a falling off of considerably more than half. In 1842, however, it was estimated by Mr. M'Culloch to have recovered to about £9,000,000; at which time the collections of gold in the Ural and Siberia were 950 poods, or cCI ,900,000. These have since increased f > 2,000 poods, or £4,000,000; and there have also been larger supplies of silver from Mouth America. The aggregate yearly production distinct from California may, therelore, now be regarded as upwards of ,011,000,000. On the other hand, the quantity used in the arts has been stated at various amounts, the average being about ,00,000,000, but of which 20 per cent, is \npposed to be from old plate, &c., brought to the melting-pot. The actual requirements *.')r this purpose, therefore, are reduced to Z 1,800,000. There is then the consumption •"or coin, including wear and tear, loss by live, and shipwreck, &c., estimated at 1 per . ent., or £3,400,000. We have thus a total consumption of £8,200,000 against an anr.ual produce of £11,000,000. These de'.lils, supposing it were possible to place re- ] lance upon them, would show a yearly sur- - Ins of £3,000,000, in addition to all that r.iiy be raised from California. Whether b ich an addition has actually taken place, (here are no means of ascertaining. —Atlas. Affection of the " WblAIiE for its Voting. —l have heard of one of those whales \/Ith a cub, when driven into shoal water, L-jing seen to swim around its young, and •: .metimes to embrace it with her fins, and r .11 over with it in the waves, evincing the f -nderest maternal solicitude. Then, as if -' /are of the impending peril of her inexpe..nced offpsring, as the boat neared her, she • "mid run round her calf in decreasing cirj% and try to decoy it seaward, showing 'ig utmost uneasiness and anxiety. Rekoni a- well that, the calf once struck, the dam ■uld never desert it, the only care of the u-pooner was to get near enough toHmry h ■> tremendous weapon deep in his ribs, liieh was no sooner done than the poor limal darted away with its anxious dam, i king out a hundred fathoms of line. It a' as but a little time, however, before, being 'tasked, and the barb lacerating its vitals, v. turned on its back, and displaying its 'lite belly on the surface of the water, it f ited a motionless corpse. The huge dam, I'll an affecting maternal instinct more rverful than reason, never quitted the body i "la cruel harpoon entered her own sides, • ';on, with a single tap of her tail, she cut ' i two one of the boats, and took to flight, : it returned soon, exhausted with loss of ' ! iod, to die by her calf, evidently, in her ■ v3t moments, more occupied with the preof her young than herself. — The ■lialeman's Adventures in the Southern -Ocean.

Steam Saw Mills.—The new Steam "U.v Mills and planing machinery, the : 'perty of Mr. Dun, recently imported '•: him, and fitted up at the bottom of 1/ verpool-street, were tried for the first :- ne on Monday afternoon. The vertical ■ v*s only were ready; but these, the mo- . Ajnt that steam was applied, started with ■• • most promising success. The engine, ' O horse power high pressure, was as ."useless as if it had been in work for • olve months; and the saws cut dowu a ! >.>• of cedar with the utmost precision into - venteen one-inch boards. The engineers .• > I sawyers seem perfectly at home with 'io work, and from the fact that the piece .<;• timber selected for a first trial was bad, « ri of the most difficult to be found in the ' it'd, we have no hesitation in expressing i) v* conviction that the machinery will cut -/> all sorts of wood, soft and hard, that \\ ly be submitted to it. The labour of :.'>,mt fifty pairs of sawyers will be super- -- ■ led by the vertical frame, which is ca<>iUo of cutting not less than forty halfi xh boards at each stroke, independent of i' o work of the circular saws, some of ./rich are forty-eight inches in diameter, r.il of the planing, tonguing, and grooving . lachiuery now in course of adaptation. • liere is no doubt the speculation, as it • ' serves, will turn out to be one of the •'■• --t adventures ever tried by a single indi- > lual in this colony. — The Sydney Press, J.hj2Q. \

Labour as a Profession. — There is a <■ <^t amount of foolish discussion and false - utiment in regard to the respectability of .hour professions. Every pursuit of in- ,-} -.?try that^l honest, and promotive of >- .ill-being, is respectable, honorable, and ■ unified. The profession of labour has no merit in itself, beyond'being more 0 less productive ; the merit belongs altojtherHo the manner of its pursuit. It is •).u-d to say which of the two is most vul- • r, ir—he who decries or scorns all labour ! . it is soiled or soiling, all common every- • • iy toil, or he who values labour only as ■ primmed with dirt, and who turns up his >\>;e at the man who works with hands or l. jo cleaner than his own. Both are ims i nsely vulgar, and both- will have to learn 1 i uh before they truly understand the I* itare and dignity of labour as a profess.r.i.—Glasgow Sentinel.