Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/123

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Imports and Exports.
107

Rockampton in Queensland; at Adelaide, and Port Adelaide in South Australia; at Hobart Town, Launceston, Oatlands, and Latrobe in Tasmania; and at Auckland, and 21 other principal places in New Zealand.

The banks issue notes, discount bills, keep cash accounts, give letters of credit, and transact all ordinary banking business.

The average weekly amount of notes in circulation in the Colony, is £18,000. The coin now in the Colony is estimated at £75,000.

English money is current in West Australia.

Imports and Exports.—The principal Imports, besides those already mentioned, are apparel and "slops," boots and shoes, showing the want of skilled labor; drapery, millinery, and haberdashery, grindery, hardware, and cutlery, ironmongery and iron in bars, &c., oilman's stores, oils, paint, and colors, saddlery and harness, soap and candles, apothecary's wares; cheese, which might be produced in the Colony, as well as corn, grain, and meal; tea and sugar, bags and sacks, agricultural implements, steam engines; flour was imported in 1876, to the value of £19,302 12s.

The principal Exports are horses, whale oil, copper and lead ore, pearls and shells, sandalwood, timber, and wool.

Generally speaking, all articles necessary for food, and all materials for industry, as well as machinery, enter duty free; but potatoes, rice, salt, and tea pay duty, and there is a duty of ten per cent, ad valorem on all goods not excepted by 40th Victoria, No. 6.

An export duty of one shilling is levied on every kangaroo skin, of five shillings per ton on sandalwood, £2 per ton on pearl shells, and a royalty of ten shillings per ton on guano.