THE YEAR’S REVENUE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 763, 15 October 1886, Page 13

THE YEAR’S REVENUE.

Sir Julias Yogel has sent the following telegram to the Chairman of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce :—J. Mackerras, Esq., Dunedin. —I have pleasure, in reply to your request for information concerning the revenue, to state as regards the Customs revenue:—The estimate for the year is £1,410,000, which is about £SOOO less than the actual receipts last year. The receipts for the first blx months are £57,000 (I omit smaller figures) less than the amount estimated. Ido not anticipate much, if any larger deficiency of Customs revenue during the remaining six months. You may recollect, by not giving any notice of the Budget, I saved the commercial community from taking out of bond large quantities of goods, as they usually do before the Financial Statement is made. Had there been the usual ru3h to pay duties, the deficiency at the end of the half year would have been much less. As it is, I think the goods in stock out of bond are light, but you will be able to judge of this in your locality. I think the reduced Customs duties are largely duo to less expenditure on spirits and the lower entry value of goods subject to ad valorem duties. The Customs figures I have given are the actual revenue receipts all over the Colony ; the half-yearly Treasury returns will show a le3B amount. These half-yearly returns are not ready for publication. When they are it should be remembered that they include only amounts brought to credit at Treasury, and there is about a week’s collections of nearly all the items of revenue not included. The collections during the last week of the year are brought to credit in the year’s accounts, so that, substantially, the first half-year represents 25 weeks and the last half 27 weeks. The stamp revenue for the year will, I think, be up to the estimate ; large special payments come in during the second half, The pastoral revenues come in well. The railways show less goods traffic during the first half than wa3 expected. The deficiency may be partly recovered. The passenger traffic keeps up well.