Wellington.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 12

Wellington.

(FROM OUB OWN OOBBESPONDENT.) Wellington, March 3rd. TJie February customs rettirns for the whole Colony are now complete, with the exception of ttao very small items which cannot appreciably affect the total. The amount of customs revenue so fan reported 1 as collected in JNew Zealand during the month of February is £125,743* >iFor the month of January the amojunt Avas £129,926. The total amount of customs revenue 'received up the lstinst. — that is' t(> say, for the 11 months of the current financial year—is no less than £1,331,000, or witHin £13,900 of the Colonial Treasurers estimate for the whole year— viz., £1,345,000. Judging from what I have been able to ascertain as to the operations of merchants and importers, there seems every reason to believe that the March returns will full equal those of February. Putting them at that sum, it will bring up the year's customs to the very large total of £1,456,000, which will be as much as £106,000 in excess of the estimated yield. This shows the remarkable recovery of trade and the elasticity of our customs revenue. The property tax up to the time at which I am telegraphing has realised, so far as the returns are in, just about £170,000, which in still £100,000 short of the Treasurer's estimate (£270,000) ; but it should be explained that as it was notified that all posted remittances bearing the postmark of Ist inst. are accepted as payments made in due time, these continue to-pp'ur in by the score, and will materially alteii the figu/es during the next few; days. It ia'dtaiexplcted'thatthe estimate will be very closely approached, if not quite reached. > | Wellington, March 4th. ' A curious occurrence has just come to light indicating that' some steamer has had a very narriw 'escape from total destruction through colliding with the" new beacon in French Pass. The master of the steamer Star of the South recently reported to. the Marine Department that Jin' going' through French ' Pass one day last month, Ms" steamer had slightly grazed' the stone beacon' erected 'on the 1 reef on the 'low or northern side of . the Pass. Accordingly Captain Johnson; of the marine office, proceeded to the spot to ascertain whether any damage had been done to the structure. He found it in such a condition that whatever steamer did the mischief it most certainly .was not done by a '.' slight graze.?' The beacon, which is a sub-, stantial erection of, stone shaped as a truncated, cone, 1 had evidently been struck in the middle,full stem on, tby a, straight-stemmed steamer. The forpe of the blow had been so great as not! only to "cant the massive, pile of masonry bodily over 'several degrees, but also, to cut in the solid * stone, .a great gash some 7 feet in .vertical length, and,l4.inches,in width, extend.ing, right into the midst of the masonry, and ■nearly, cutting the whole structure in two. The wonder is that the steamer which was in collision with, the beapon .escaped being totally wrecked. ' It, js most certain /that nad she struck on the rock whichf forms the foundation ,of fthe beacon , with anything Jike the momentum bf .her.^contact.with .the latter she must .have filled and gone, down at once. Captain Johnson has r brought 1 r back some sketches re r . presetting! the, present appearance of the-in-jured; beacon. I, was courteously afforded an opportunity of inspecting these, and it is impossible, to help feeling extreme surprise at the escap'eiof ' the ste.a?ner, seeing the wreck which the concussion has made of a solid mass of substantial masonry. I understand that some further investigation will take place- into the circumstances.

, 1 II < ." As severaljnqujries have been; made as to i the intentions 9f [the Government in respect to sending, Honie, by,, cable a congratulation' on the^escape of ;the .Queen, I have ascertained that as, the Premier ( is expected to return to Wellington to-morrow no steps will be taken until ' to-morrow in reference to telegraphing to 1 the Secretary, of State for the Colonies a .congratulatory address on the escape of her Majesty' from assassination; but it is probable that this will, then be, done. . . Mr, Rolleston telegraphs to the Colonial Secretary, that hejonly reached Opotiki to-day after three days' hard riding in continuous heavy rain. It has been decided to begin the coming financial year, which commences on the Ist proximo, with an entirely new set of adhesive stamps, to be used both for postage and revenue purposes. It was some time ago arranged to make' the penny postage , stamps available for receipts, and vice versa. It is found desirable, however, to introduce afresh system of stamps with the new financial year, and dies for these have just been completed. The new stamps will be respectively penny, twopenny, threepenny, fourpenny, sixpenny, eightpenny, and shilling. The designs are very neat and well executed. The mainfeatureis, of course, the head of the Queen surrounded by a border varying in shape and design according to the value of the stamp. For instance, in the penny stamp a royal head is placed within an elliptical border bearing words setting forth the value of the stamp. In the twopenny and eightpenny stamps the borders are heptagoiial, and in the threepenny, fourpenny, and shilling stamps are circular, but varied in treatment. In the sixpenny stamp the border is square. The colours are to bo totally different from those of the stamps as at present in use, viz:— Penny, crimson ; twopence, mauve ; threepence, yellow ; fourpence, green; sixpence, brown; eightponcc, red; shilling, Indian red. These stamps and no other will be issued after the 31st. Until that date old stamps will be used so far as they will go. The news stamps will bo usable for all inland revenue purposes excepting beer duty, for which the speciallyprepared stamp must in all cases be employed. One rule, however, will be enforced— namely, that when any of the larger amounts of stamp duty have to "be 1 represented by an adhesive stamp, it will be imperative to use the stamp whose value most nearly approaches the amount of duty payable. For instance, if the duty is 10s, one ten shilling stamp must be used, and not 10 stamps of a shilling each. The object of this rule is to prevent any repetition of frauds such as were detected in Wellington last year. I find that the stamp revenue has come in wonderfully well. The Treasurer's estimate for the wholo year was £150,000; but no less than £157,152 has been already received for the 1L months, so that the total for the year will be fully £20,000 above the estimate. I believe, too, that in my last night's telegram I rather understated the prospects of the Customs. I reckoned March at the same sum as February ; but the latter is a short month, and allowing for three extra (fciys in March at same note as February (March, moreover, being always a good month for Customs revenue), the total" would bo, €1,470,000, or £125,000 above the estimate. It is not at all improbable that the actual excess may be fully £130,000. On the other hand, the beer duty has not quite come up fco expectations, haung' realised for fio li jnonLlis £52,810, which is £20,000 under i fche estimate.

Wellington, March 6th. So far as tho returns arc in, tho property tax receipts for the present year have been about

£18f ,000, but several large sums have still to come in, , and the arrears from last year* amounting, I believe, to some £4000, have to be added to the total. I hear that nearly every penny of these arrears has been got in #> It must also be remembered that the tax this year is only fd in the pound instead of Id as before. The 10 per cent, is being strictly enforced, as indeed by law it must be. There is rather a joke in connection with this penalty which, as no secret is made of it, 1 may mention without indiscretion. On his return to-day, the Premier suddenly discovered to his chagrin that he was one of the victims of this penalty. He had written his cheque before leaving Wellington, but feeling certain of being back before the Ist inst., he did not send it to the Tax-office. He was prevented by public business from getting back in time, and only recollected when it was too late thati his cheque had never gone in. However, ho of course paid the penalty and looked pleasant, only expressing the hope that all taxpayers who were behindhand would go and do likewise.

I have two or three more items of revenue for you to-night. The February postal returns are not quite completed, but very nearly so, and, added to those of previous months, make the total for the 11 months £134,000. The, estimate for 12 months was £150,000 ; but as there are some heavy sums to come in during the month, it is fully expected that the estimate, will be reached, and probably exceeded by a few thousands. Telegraphs have yielded £66,312 for the 11 months, the 12 months' estimate being £76,000, which will , scarcely be made up, by the 31st inst. Land transfer and deeds registry have produced £37,047 in the 11 months, and will exceed the estimate (£40,000) by the end of the month, i Great dissatisfaction prevails in Volunteer circlfes at the proceedings of the Volunteer Board as disclosed. In the first _ place, immediately on its assembling exception was taken by several members to the non-representation of certain important Volunteer districts,' nota )ly Otago, Southland, Thames, and the Wes ; Coast of the North Island. A proposal was : nade , by the majority of the Board that ' the Government should be requested to appoint representatives from these places; but' the Chairman flatly refused to entertain it, and threatened to- resign if it were persisted in, whereupon it was modified to the. extent of , applying to Thames and Qtago only} buj» , General Davidson still refused to accept it , unless on the condition that he should also . 'have! two military • officers who had been in the Imperial service. On .the proposal being pressed by the other members of the, Board, General Davidson^ as chairman, ultimately 'ruled it out of order, and refused to,put it aft %\h JThen a, certain Captain Webb, w£6 is, 1., , am t rid, (General Davidson's son-in-law^ and, also idjutant" of 'the Nelson district, receiving , some £300 per annum from Government for official services, has been specially imported to, , , Well ngfcon to act as paid secretary, to the Boar I; and the .phairman, refused, to have a shorthand, reporter to take down the {evidence, , so tile sitting , will be almost everlasting,, „ 'Altogether the Board is not a, happy family, and fihere is loud grumbling both inside ana outside. _,; ; ,■ IX , L ,