IN OTHER CENTRES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 107, 1 November 1940, Page 10

IN OTHER CENTRES

(By Telegraph Ires.

Association. I

Auckland.—Customs revenue collected in Auckland in October totalled £283,125, this being £5744 less than the total in October last year. The total for the last 10 months was £3,253,874, a decline of £424,700, compared with the corresponding period of 1939. Details of the month's collections are as follows, the figures for October, 1939, in parentheses:—Customs, £226,417 (£233,409); motor spirit at 6d a gallon, £55,318 (£54,100); tyre duty, £1390 (£1360); total, £283,125 (£288,869); excise on beer, £31,779 (£31,394); sales tax, at 5 per cent., £98,427 (£98,069). Collections payable to the war expenses account, including the 5 per cent, sales tax and proportions of additional duties on spirits, beer, tobacco, and gold exports, amounted in October to £113,961, compared with £109,676 in September. The total collected since the beginning of the year is £448,987.

Christchurch.—Customs revenue collected in Christchurch in the seven months to the end of October was £1,329,915, an increase of £47,900 on the total for the same period last year. This sum, however, includes £171,303 collected from special war duties on tobacco and cigarettes, spirits and beer, and extra sales tax. The yield from actual Customs duties was £591,450, against £692,168 last year, a decrease of £100,718. The yield from beer duty was considerably higher at £109,155, and sales tax returned £304,667, against £292,011, but the yield from petrol tax continues to run at a substantially lower level. Figures for October showlittle variation from those for October last year, an increase in the total collection from £167,757 to £217,776 being accounted for by the collection of £53,412 for the war expenses account.

Dunedin. —Customs returns for October show a drop of almost £4000 in Customs duties and something like £9000 in beer duty. The outstanding figure, however, is that relating to war expenses, the total for the month just ended being £41,503, compared with £9043 in October of last year. This accounts for the increased total, that for • the month being £ 165,361, compared with £146,169 for the same month last year. Gold tax is up, the figures being £2943, compared with last October's total of £1025, and tyres at £503 show a substantial rise on the comparative figure of £370. Petrol tax is down by £600. Following are the detailed figures, with those for October last year in parentheses:—Customs, £43,638 (£47,464); beer, £34,868 (£43,818); sales tax, £29,653 (£32,091); gold, £2943 (£1025); tyres, £503 (£370); petrol, £11,793 (£12,324); port levies, wool, £62 (£7); hides, £20 (—); war expenses account, £41,503 (£9043); miscellaneous, £378 (£27).