CONSOLIDATED FUND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13095, 7 February 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONSOLIDATED FUND.

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURE.

Tub statement of receipts and expenditure under the Consolidated Fund for the quarter ended December 31 is published in the Gazette issued on Thursday.

The ordinary revenue, including the balance at the' beginning of the quarter, amounted to £2.774,669, to which Customs contributed £684,819, railways £546,480, and land tax £568,427.

The expenditure on permanent appropriations amounted to £1.037.594 ; annual appropriations, £1,043.387; and £300,000 was transferred to the Public Works Fund, leaviii"' a balance (after making provision for Treasury bills outstanding, £700,000) of £395,687.

The expenditure under the Public Works Act was £323,452, and there was a balance to the credit of the fund at the end of the quarter amounting to £389,365. Of the Customs duties £164,547 was collected at Wellington. £162,114 at Auckland, £106,121 at Dunedin, and £96,023 at Christchurch. The Postal Department derived £40,609 of its revenue from Wellington, £30.437 from Auckland, £25,163 from Christchurch, and £18,904 from Dunedin.

A remarkable instance of the ingenuity of postal officials was recently found in the delivery of a postcard at Temuka. The card was posted in ChrLstckureh, but the sender forgot to address it,. and the only indication it bore as to its intended destination was the introductory ''Dear Myrtle" and the postscript (ladies write postscripts even on postcards), "Please bring back with voti two postcard views of Temuka." The postal officials correctly surmised that the card was to go to a young lady named Myrtle then presumably staying in Temuka. The card was safely delivered about a. mile from the Temuka, post office on the day after it was posted in Christchurch.