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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4236, 17 October 1874, Page 2

The New Zealand Gazette of the 15th, contains a, statement in detail of the colonial revenue for the quarter ended September 26, 1874. There is not much delay, therefore, in the publication of the return. The total Consolidated Revenue for the quarter was £355,434, which is made up as follows : Customs £287,318 Stamps 24,844: Postal 14.T08 Telegraphic 12.M1 Judicial fees and fines 6,779 I'ces—registration, &c. .. .. 8,595 Incidental 380 We have omitted the shillings and pence in the foregoing summary, as we do in all subsequent tables. The figures quoted show the enormous progress the colony is making. Putting out of sia;ht the very large income from Customs duties, wo have, in the stamp duties, postal and telegraph fees, sure indication of an activo and progressive community. Referring to the statement in detail, we find the following as the contributions to Consolidated Revenue by the respective provinces. Thus : Auckland £74,434 Taranaki 2,503 Wellington 48,920 Hawke's Hay 12,977 Nelson 22,598 Marlborough 2,997 Canterbury .. 59,478 Westland 15,733 Otago 115,084 The provinces, therefore, should be ranged for the present in the following order, so far as contributions to the Consolidated Revenue are concerned :—lst,

Otago ; 2nd, Auckland ; 3rd, Canterbury • 4th, Wellington, which is within £10,552 of Canterbury on the quarter. Nelson, and the smaller provinces, follow a long way behind. The Customs Revenue collected in the several provinces during the last September quarter show the distribution of trade pretty accurately. We quote : Auckland £62,177 Taranaki 1,41)3 Wellington 39,193 Hawke'sßay 9.SIG Nelson 18,339 Marlborough .. .. .. .. 1,880 Canterbury 41,748 Westland 12,733 Otago 93,372 So much for the Consolidated Revenue with which the Colonial Parliament has to deal. Let us now turn to the statement of the LAND FUND For the same period, namely, up to September 26, 1874. This large branch of the revenue is appropriated by the Councils of the respective provinces. The total receipts, under all heads of income, were£27B,o7l; and there were paid over to the provinces the following amounts, inclusive of £23,497 credit balances on the 30th of June last, of which £22,G50 belonged to Otago:— Auckland £2,980 Taranaki 41 Wellington 15,423 Hawke'sßay 7,399 Nelson 5,025 Marlborough 1,085 Westland 3,632 Canterbury U 7,050 Otago .. 140,977 In gross, therefore, £300,846 was handed over by the General Government to the provincial treasuries throughout the colony, in the shape of land fund, which includes goldfields revenue and gold duty, as well as territorial revenue. To form a correct estimate, therefore, of the revenue

of the colony in the rough—for it does not at all give anything liko the revenue in detail, as in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, or Tasmania—we shall combine the General and Provincial revenue. Thus:— Quarter ended September 20,1874. Consolidated Revenue .. .. £355,434 Land Fund 300,840

Total .. £650,280 In other words, the revenue of the colony, which passed through the departments of the General Government, during the last September quarter, was at the rate of £2,625,120 PER ANNUM. Now, this large sum does not nearly represent the revenue of this colony of three hundred thousand odd inhabitants. There are its railways, for instance, which will return a net income of something like 15 per cent, in Canterbury and Otago, and there are besides the fruitful streams of local taxation which flow into the provincial treasuries. Indeed, we should not exceed the mark were we to estimate the l-evenue of New Zealand, plus local rates, at three millions for the year 1874-75.