INCREASING IMPORTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1920, Page 5

INCREASING IMPORTS

TOBACCO AND LIQUOR

REVENUE* RETURNS

HUGE TEA IMPORTS

The returns showing the customs and excise duties collected at the seve ral ports of New Zealand during the quarter ended June 30th, make interesting reading, and the figures for Coast ports indicate the steadily increasing nature of the imports as well as the gradual return to normal conditions.

Smokers and those who drink the wine that cheers in Greymouth contributed to the revenue to the extent of £7950 out of a total <of £10,066. The total for the corresopnding period last year was £7288.

The following table shows the details of the principal imports on which duty was payable for the Coast ports, Westport and Greymouth, the former being given in parenthesis : Greymouth spirits £4583, (Westport £1,016); cigarettes £1555 (£543) ; manufactured tobacco £1,543 (£359); wine (sparkling), £ls, (nil) ; Australian. £126 (£59); other kinds £25 (nil); South African £9B (£2) ; tea £lO5 (nil.) It will be seen that the cigarette smokers in the Grey distinct are more numerous than those who prefer the pipe, but the reverse seems to be the case at HoMtika, where £375 was col lected from import of manufactured tobacco as against £2Ol from cigarettes.

In view of the recent controversy over the matter the tea importations of the Dominion make interesting reading. For the last quarter an amount of £44,221 was received in revenue from the duty on tea as compared with only £25,010 for the Dominion in the corresponding quarter of 1919. The tea impo7-ted amounted to 3,527,305 lbs, approximately 2 lbs per hsad of the population.

Nine pounds of opium as compared with one lb for the corresponding quarter last year was imported into the Dominion the duty being 40s a lb