Ordinary Revenue.

The Ordinary (or Consolidated) Revenue now consists chiefly of Customs Duties. The total receipts from this source during the year 1876 were £1,278,525. How is this collected, and who arethey that pay the greater portion of it?

The principal items are:—Duties on imported goods, £1,197,796; on exported gold, £30,969; on spirits made in New Zealand, £8,995; total, £1,237,760. The balance, amounting to £46,765, is made up of lighthouse and pilotage dues, £30,066; bonded warehouse duty, £5,538; and some smaller items of no consequence to this inquiry.

The duties are directly paid by merchants and others who import goods from Great Britain, Australia, Tasmania, America, Mauritius, and other countries; by page 5 bankers and other exporters of gold; and by distillers. Payments are made in the Custom house offices of twenty-one different ports; Christchurch, miles by railway from Lyttelton, being part of that port for Custom house purposes, the Chief Collector's office being at the inland city.