Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1907. THE CUSTOMS RETURNS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 February 1907, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1907. THE CUSTOMS RETURNS.

MARKED INCREASES AND PROSPERITY. THE Customs returns for the December quarter of last year, and the comparative returns of duties collected for the years 1905- and 1906, have been published as a supplement to the "Government Gazette.' They are very significant of the general prosperity, ntd show the marked progress made, especially in the four large centres. At he same time, the great and steady increase in the Custome revenue points to the anomaly that .a country which '.mposed a large number of duties some veavs ago, as a temporary self-denying , ordinance rendered compulsory because t.

of financial stress and commercial and industrial depression, has % corttlnuKd lo | collect most of thoso duties as a permanence because- it has become habituated to an extravagant expenditure. However emphatically the figures indicate the return of prosperity-, it is obvious that thera has been no attempt to increase the purchasing power of eh* pool' man's pound. On the contrary, with the general rise in the Cost of' living; InA purchasing power of the pound h&S decreased while. the State still takes in perpetual taxation, the proportion of the pound that Was set ! apart for a time «jttl'y to Save the pco- ; pie's fioriour and meet the people's obligations. .... Turning to the figures themselves, it" is found, that Wel''Bg>ofl leads the colony in tfie voi'uSiie of business represented by Customs duties. For the last quarter of 1906 the amount collected at that port was £185,388, the total for the corresponding quarter of 1905 being £170,200. Similarly for the year, the lead is still maintained, tho totals being £760,155 for 1006 and £681,493 for 1905. „ . i • AucklanrViis n 'good second to Wellington. The Customs collections there for tlie December quarter amounted to £191,477, and for tho corresponding quarter of 1005 to £166,874. The year's totals were £706,482 and £669,917 respeltively. It will be noted that in tho last quarter Aucklaiid had an actually lavger turnover . for the period i than Wellington,, and thajt if the turn- ' over of the .v'erWining quarters of 1906 fiad horrii commensurately high there would have been very little difference between the returns of the northern and the middle city, • » • • SB Dunedin comes next in the order of importance as gauged by the Cn»toms returns, although trade there on the basis of the year's comparison with 1905 shows no great elasticity. The total for the December qu*.rtei- of 1906 is £106,817, compared with £109,499 in tho December quarter of 1905, an actual falling-off, and the only decrease shown among the larger figures of the whole return. T&e ..yeaW *ofals, however, give, ap- increase sufficient to indicate that there has been no retrogression, being £434,264 for 1906, and £416,560 for 1905. • • • • » • At Lvttelton and Christchurch, owing doubtless to the Exhibition activity, there was a marked rise m the qiijr- ' tcrly returns ,frora £99,909 in the Occetnber quarter of 19f)5 to ' _12&,693 in the last, quarter of 1906. Similarly, the figures for the year Rive a correspond- j ing increase, being -£460,498 for 1906, and £389,644 fov 1905. »'; O i ,• * • Passing tmm the large to the secondary centres, the increases in Customs returns for the year are -even more significant. The more important returns are as follow : — 1906. 1905. £ £ Poverty Bay 35,643 ' 30,282 Wanganui 7?,768 71,558 Napier 96,300 84,896 New Plymouth ... 31,087 29,544 Wcstport 13,410 11,693 Timaru 41,435 35,698 Invercargill 89,097 84.191 Nelson 42,784 40,526 Wairau 10,950 9411 Greymouth .... „..26,242 24,016 The' places which show decreases are : Oamaru 11,601 17,281 Hokitik* 10,294 10,322 Pidori 468 475 The total revenue for the colony for the last quarter was £757,656, compared with £676,910 for the corresponding quarter of 1905, and for the vear the figures wero £2,893,103 in 1906 and £2,265,667 iii 1905, or an increase for the year of £246,436— over- a quarter of a million pounds. In the samo periods, the parcels post revenue (which is included in the foregoing) increased for the quarter from £12,788 to £15,379, and for the vear from £39,728 to £45,074. '