THE CUSTOMS REVENUE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10281, 7 January 1922, Page 1

THE CUSTOMS REVENUE.

FIGURES FOR NNB MONTHS

The Customs revenue for the first nine months of the financial year totalled £3,926,332, compared with the estimate of £-1,900,000 for the year, leaving nearly £1,000,000 to he^ obtained during the last quarter. * Since, however, eighteen months to two years’ supply of spirits was released from bond prior to the introduction of the Tariff Bill very little revenue from spirits can be expected for some months, and it is considered hardly likely that the average of the first three-quarters will be realised. For the past calendar year the Customs revenue totalled £5,728,955 against £8,033,342 for 1920, £4,530,094 for 1919, and £3,600,853 for 1918. The beer duty revenue to date is £77,000 below the estimate for the nine months. .Owing, however, to the practical doubling of the duty, the revenue for November and December was roughly £50,000 a month as against an average of about £25,000 a month in the early part of the jear. For the calendar year 19 21 the beer duty yielded £393,953, compared with £3 63,5 9 6 for 1920, and £337.511 for 1919. LIVID DOUBLE LIFE. CASE OF cT DAWKINS. REAL JEKYLL AND HYDE. AN AMAZING STORY. The arrest 1 at Christchurch of Charles Campbell Dawkins, and his admission of having committed several burglaries in Wellington, have caused quite a sensation in this city, where he was well and fa/omabl. known (states the “N.Z. Times”). Various acquaintances of Dawkins gave most favourable reports of him to a ‘‘N.Z. Times” representative. As an undergraduate of Victoria College, he was universally liked by his fellow students, and his fondness for swimming as a sport considerably enlarged his circle of friends. Dawkins was one of the founders o? the Victoria College Swimming Club, and represented that body as a delegate to the Wellington Swimming Centre. He was also a member of the committee of the Lyall Bay Surf Club for the past 12 months. Last' season he competed, though unsuccessfully, in several swimming races at the Te Aro baths. He proved himself an able and insistent debater at the meetings of the Wellington Swimming Centre. The centre recently gave Dawkins authority to cany, ,s for all the advertisements for p: plication in the programme of the . ew Zealand swimming championship sports, to be held at Wellington within a few weeks’ time. i His fellow-students describe him as a well-informed, fluent speaker, of most abstemious habits, and scrupulous principles. He is of medium height, well built, or good appearance: he never wore a hat. Dawkins boarded on Wellington Terrace. It would seem, according to the statements of some of his friends that he would come from a club meeting, and it was after parting with them afiput 10 o’clock in tin evening that he would start out on his house-breaking ' exploits. The suggestion has been made that his sudden outbreak of criminal tendencies is due to some mental aberration. The assumption that hi attack on Dr, McEvedy was the action of a dangerous criminal is scouted by bis acquaintances. They view his action on that occasion as more like the behaviour of a rat that bud been trapped, and that was anxious to escape at all costs. Dawkins’s double life, however, presents an extraordinary problem, and so cqmplctely antithetic are the two sides of his character that those who, know him intimately cannot reconcile themselves to any other theory than that he is suffering from shell shock (he served in the Great Wart or is a victim to some mental 1 rouble not at present understood by mental pathologists. BEFORE THE COURT. At the Magistrate’s Courl, Christchurch, on Wednesday, Charles Campbell Dawkins appeared on a charge of having broken into the premises of Horace Allen Gadsden, 101 Carlton Mill Road, and with having stolen £2l 10s in notes, a sovereign case, a gold watch and chain, and other articles valued at £62. He was remanded until January 12th.