The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 432, 18 December 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1868.

By the publication of several returns relative to the trade of Westport, we have anticipated much of the information which is given in thelastnumberof the General Government Gazette with regard to the items of exports, imports, and shipping for the September quarter of the present year. In the form in which the information is given in the Gazette, there are, however, facilities for the comparison of figures, and of the relative positions of West Coast ports, which are worthy of attention. We find, for instance, that, during the quarter in question, the value of the exports of Westport, almost exclusively restricted to go]d, was £139,670, as" against .£122,49S in the corresponding quarter of 1867. This is a comparison sufficiently satisfactory in itself. But when a comparison is instituted between the exports of Westport and those of the nominal capital of the Province—the port of Nelson—there is still more reason for satisfaction—at least, with the creditable position which Westport occupies. Against £139,670, the value of exports from Westport, Nelson is shown to have exported gold, wool, hides, horses, timber, and vegetable produce to the value of only £12,224 ; and the increase for the year is on a much smaller ratio, the exports for the quarter of the previous year being valued at £10,409. Greymouth,with gold,coal, hides, skins, and £7O worth of wool, exported only £97,950 worth, and, strange to say, this exhibits a eonsider?ble declension of trade compared with the third quarter of 1867, when G-reymouth exported produce to the value of £124,915. Hokitika shows we 11£155,090 £155,090 for the quarter, hut not well when compared against itself, for in the 1867 quarter it exported to the value of £233 ( 505. Except Hokitika and Dunedin, Westport appears as the most extensive exporting port, in mere point of money value of exports, and infinitely superior to all the other ports of New Zealand.

It is an anomaly that, while this is the case with regard to exports, the columus of imports opposite the name of "Westport are entirely blank—we mean, of course, imports from the United Kingdom, or from other British possessions. It may be that the returns have not been received, but they have oil along been ridiculously small, and unaccountably so, if it were not for the knowledge that it is from Nelson, Hokitika, and from other colonial ports that "Westport chiefly receives its supplies, to the considerable disadvantage of its revenue and of the nominal status of the district. How far this is the case is illustrated by the shipping returns for the quarter. Only three vessels arrived from " British possessions," while at Hokitika, Greymouth, and Nelson, the numbers were respectively sixteen, nineteen, and twenty-eight. "While the best port on the Coast imports directly from the best colonial markets next to nothing, Grreymouth imported to the value of |

£97,950, and Hokitika to the value of £61,557. Though they have nothing to do with the trade of Westport, these figures are themselves very significant. They show, for the quarter at least, a disposition on the part of the Greymouth import trade to increase, while* that of Hokitika is, decreasing, for in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the positions were reversed. Hokitika then imported to the value of £176,071, while Greymouth imported only to the value of £46,490.