SOME INTERESTING FIGURES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12564, 19 January 1903, Page 11 (Supplement)

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES.

The Customs returns for Dunedin last year are as follows:—On goods £407,455, and on beer £25,373 10s 2d. The gold exported was 173,46107., valued at £697,577. For the year 1901 the figuros were: Goods £412.393 03 10d, beer £25,568 2s s<t. The gold exported was valued at £541,520. There is therefore a falling off in the revcaiuo on goods of about £5000, but little alteration i;i the beer duly, and the export in gold' lias increased by about £156,000.

The returns for the month of December last were: On goods £36,247 8s lid, on beer £2711 9s 3d, while tho gold exported was ?.2,0430z, the value of the gold being £88.266. For December of the previous year tho revenue on goods was £32.610 11s 2d, on beer £2812 19s 9d, and the gold exported was 81620z, valued at £32,64b. This, also, shows that there has been an increase in goods revenue, and in\the gold exported, tbe latter being large. The beer duty has slightly decreased.

A glance backwards at the figures tearing on the Customs revonim for the Dunedin district since the Customhouse was opoaied in Dunedin on tho 21st April, 1848, is not without interest. Up to the end of April, 1848, no duty was collected, and tho record for t!ie next month, Hay, was £274 6s 3d. This fell away in July to £20 18s sd, and fluctuated up to the end o( the year, the sum collected for December being £97 17s 9d. For the your 1849 the revenue amounted to £1835 5s 9d, and there was but small difference in the figures for 1850. In 1851, however, there woe a big rise to £2197 13s 10d, but no further material inorease took place till 1854, when the duty on goods was £5781 14s 10d. Tho next increase of any note was in 1657, tho total for that year being £8218 18s 3d, but three years later it amounted to £23,708 Is 2d. It was in the latter part of 1860 that the gold rush set in, and this caused an almost immediate rise in the imports, the revenue for IE6I being recorded'at £69,736 17s 4d. and for 1862 at £169,079. In tho year following it had still further increased to £261,398, but then dropped somewhat till 1873, at the and of which year it was £282,913 9s Bd. In the year following there was a rise to £357,543 js 4d, and next year saw a still further rise-' of abont £5000. For some years the revenue remained steady, but in 1881 rose again to £433,010 2s lOd. The total declined for four years, and then steadily rose again until £433,509, was reached in 1900, this being the West sunv yet collected at* the Custom-

house for any 12 months. In 1901 the total was £4-12,346 6s 4d. and for the year just ended it was £406,839 5s 6d. The first record obtainable of the beer duty is in 1880, the amount paid for the quarter ending Juno being £321 13s. Next quarter it was £1187 2s 9d, and for the last quarter of the year £4788 lSe. This was the lsrgosfc amount received till the first quarter of 1898, when the sum was £4840 18s Bd,' and tho last quarter of the same year it again rose to £5636 7s lid. The next increase was for the last quarter of 1899, .when it was £5877 Is 3d. The quarter ending Decombor 1900 saw another riee to £6783 14s lid, and the last quarter for the year 1901, a still further increase to £7491 18s 3d. For the lost quarter of tho year just expired it dropped to £6945 19s. Taking the totals for the years, the least sum appears to have been collected in 1887, the amount then being £10,607 6s 9d. The largest sum paid for any one year was in 1901, when the total was £25,554 2s sd, about £200 moro than tho year just- ended. The first material increase was in 1898 (£18,945 4s 10d), though there has been a tendency to rise steadily since 1592. • The gold returns of the Otago district from 1861 to the present furnish some interesting figures. The first record was made at the end of September, 1861, when the gold exported was 23,1780z, but for tho quarter ending December following this had increased to 164,5180z. For the year 1862 it ran up to 405,2900z, and stil! further increased- in If 63 to 614,3870z (value £2,380,750), and this has nover been approached since. In the year following— that is, 1864 — it fell to 436,0120z.. Thou there was a drop next year to 259,1390z, and a still further drop in 1865 to 168,8710z. The export remained fairly steady till 1874. when it fell to 135,1070z, and after this there was a downward tendency up to 1838, whoa it,got as low as 62,1070z. In 1889 it began to revive slightly, and in 1891 reached 87,2090z. There was again a fall till 1895. when it was 87,6940z. A decided rise, due, no doubt, to dredging, occurred *in If 99, the exported quantity, .then" being 130,2260z, and this remained about steady till lnsfc year, \yhen.jt ros,o to 173,4.610z. The total quantity of gold exported from horo since the goldfiolds broke out in IE6I. ui> to the end of IEO2, is valued at £23,661,743.