TABLE SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF DUTIES RECEIVED AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, SAN FEANCISCO, DURING THE LAST HALF OF THE YEAR 1853: TABLE SHOWING THE AMOUNT AND VALUE OF QUICKSILVER EXPORTED FROM SAN FRAN CISCO DURING THE YEAR 1853 TO INSPECTION OF FLOUR AND MEAL AT BALTIMORE. The following table shows the number of barrels and half-barrels of wheat and rye flour and corn-meal inspected in the city of Baltimore from the year 1841 to 1st of September, 1854: Wheat flour. Rye flour. Half-barrels. Barrels. Half-barrels. 3,831 22 24 49 9 53 38 Corn-meal. Corn-meal. -bbls. 333 60,225 1,322 1842 715 7,712 437 1849.. 428 51,772 2,051 NAVIGATION, COMMERCE, AND FISHERIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. According to the Boston Traveler-good authority-the number of foreign arrivals at the ports of this State rauk as follows: Barnstable County owns 78,000 tons of shipping, but as that county includes the whole of Cape Cod, with twelve or fifteen towns, some of them greatly exceeding Barnstable, the port of entry in tonnage, we have not placed this district in the list. For the districts above, at the port of entry were owned about all the tonnage, the out ports being unimportant. In the fisheries, towns of Essex County rank about as follows, June, 1853: The entire county of Barnstable, with its great fishing interests, including the ports of Provincetown, Orleans, Eastham, Falmouth, Truro, Wellfleet, Harwich, Dennis, Chatham, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Brewster, &c., has engaged on the fisheries 22,400 tons of shipping, equal to 250 schooners, or about the same as the port of Gloucester alone. The district of Gloucester has 27,000 tons in the fishing business, all of which, with the exception of 7,000 tons, sails from the harbor of Gloucester, the rest sailing from Rockport, Annisquam, and Manchester harbors, which we comprehend in Gloucester collection district. The smallest district in the United States is that of Ipswich, Massachusetts, owning 367 tons shipping. Not an entry or clearance occurred at that port during the year 1853. The district will soon be abolished, resulting in a gain to the United States Government of some hundreds of dollars per annum. KENTUCKY TOBACCO TRADE IN 1854. The commercial year for the tobacco trade closed on the 31st of October, 1854. According to the Louisville Journal, the sales of the year amount to 10,200 hogsheads. These are the sales exclusive of reviews. The total sales last year were 16,543 hhds., and two years ago they were 23,185 hhds. The stock on hand this year is estimated at 1,500 hhds., while that of the same time last year was estimated at 6,000 hhds. This, it will be seen, exhibits a very great falling off. It has not been produced by a decrease in actual business, but by a large deficiency in the growing crop. AMERICAN COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE IN AUSTRALIA. A magnetic telegraph line has been established in Australia. It cost about $1,000 a mile, and was built by a Mr. McGowan, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts. The Americans appear to maintain their go-ahead character in that country. Besides the telegraph, which is under the management of Americans, a line of coaches has been established with several imported coaches from the States, running between the capital and its suburbs. An express-office, a fire brigade, a post-office, and the best hotels in the country, are all improvements introduced by our countrymen. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. EARNINGS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE BELGIAN RAILROADS. The Belgian Government has not published full accounts of the operations of their roads since 1852, particularly in the matter of operating expenditures, probably because they have now reached that pitch of prosperity at which it is usual with some people to commence to observe secresy, a course, however, which generally defeats the object in view, besides leading to a departure from the principles of economy and geueral carefulness, so necessary to the continued prosperity of railway property. The following figures give the general facts so far as they can be arrived at, of the operations of the Belgian Government railways from 1848 to July 1st, 1854:— The working expenses have somewhat advanced with the increased traffic, but the increase in them has not at all kept pace with the increase in the traffic. THE INCREASE OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC ON RAILWAYS. One of the most singular things connected with railways is the increase of passenger traffic, and the creation of new business. It appears, from the returns of the British railways, that while the number of miles in use has remained nearly the same, the number of passengers has increased very rapidly. The returns for passengers in the last three years were as follows: In 1851. In 1853. 78,969,622 At this rate, the entire passenger traffic will double in less than ten years; and that in a country where everything is fixed and population increases slowly. In the United States the entire traffic of railways doubles in seven years; and, as the expenses do not increase in the same proportion, the proprietors of railway stock have the certainty that their property is rapidly increasing in real value, in spite of vicissitudes or fluctuations in the money market. THE CANALS AND OTHER PUBLIC WORKS OF NEW YORK,* NUMBER VI. ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT BUSINESS OF THE CANALS. The following table furnishes a comparative statement of the tonnage and toll of all and each of the canals, of that arriving at, and that leaving tide-water, of the tonnage shipped from the western termini, of that from this and the Western States, For the first number of this series of papers (derived from the admirable report of W. J MCALPINE, Esq., State Engineer and Surveyor,) exhibiting a comprehensive history of "The Progress of Internal Improvements in the State of New York," see Merchants' Magazine for July, 1854, (volume xxxi., pages 123-126). For number 2, relating to "The Canals and Railroads as a Depen dent System," see Merchants' Magazine for August, 1854, (vol. 31, pages 247-249;) for number 3, relating to "the Extension of Trade and Travel beyond the State of New York," see same for Septem ber, 1854, (vol. xxxi., pp. 374-377;) for number 4, relating to The cost and Charges of Transport," see same for October, 1854, (vol. xxxi., pp. 496-499;) and for number 5, for November, 1854, (vol. xxxi, pages 629-633,) touching "the Comparative Cost, Capacity, and Revenue of the Erie Canal and the parallel Railroads, and the Cost and Charges of Transportation thereon." the tonnage and tolls of the several classes, and of some of thé principal articles of each class transported: Per centage Per centage This table has been made by taking the tonnage and tolls of all the canals as a standard, and stating the proportions which each of the canals, shipments, classes, and articles named, bear to the amount of all the canals. A glance at the table as thus arranged, is sufficient to furnish the reader with a tolerably correct idea of the relative business done upon each canal at the chief localities, and in the transportation of each of the classes and articles carried. The following deductions from these tables will serve to present some of the more striking points in the business performed: 1st. That while the tonnage upou the Erie Canal is but little more than one-half of the total tonnage of the canals, the receipts for tolls are three-fourths of the whole receipts. 2d. That while the tonnage of the Oswego and Champlain Canals forms nearly one-third of the whole tonnage, the receipts for tolls on both are 16 per cent of the whole, and while that of the Chemung, Genesee Valley, and Cayuga Canals forms one-ninth of the whole tonnage, the receipts for tolls on them are 8 per cent of the whole. 3d. That the tonnage arriving at tide-water is nearly three fifths of the whole; that leaving tide-water is about one-seventh; and that shipped elsewhere is nearly three-tenths of the whole tonnage. 4th. That the tonnage shipped at Lake Erie is nearly one-fifth; at Oswego nearly one-eighth, and at Whitehall one-twelfth of the whole tonnage. 5th. That the tonnage from the Western States forms nearly one-third, and that from this State about two-thirds of the whole tonnage carried. In the classification of the articles transported, the following deductions are made from the table: 1st. That the tonnage of the products of the forest is 43 per cent; of vegetable food, 25 per cent; of merchandise, 11 per cent, and other articles, 14 per cent; while the receipts for tolls from the first are but 18 per cent; from the second, 40 per cent; from the third, 22 per cent, and from the fourth, but 4 per cent of the whole. The tonnage of manufactures being 5 per cent, and the tolls 4 per cent, and the tonnage and tolls of the products of animals being each but about 2 per cent of the whole. 2d. That the tonnage of lumber is about one-fourth of the whole, and the receipts for tolls one-eighth; that the tonnage of flour, wheat, and corn, is nearly one-fourth, while the tolls are over one-third. 3d. That timber, salt, and railroad iron, form each 4 per cent of the tonnage, while the tolls of the first are 3 per cent, and of the two latter are each 1 per cent of the whole. The foregoing statements and deductions have been made from the report of tolls, trade, and tonnage, as prepared by the Auditor. The tonnage and tolls due to the movement on each of the canals, cannot he ascertained from these reports, as they only show the tonnage cleared at each collector's office, and the whole tolls collected thereon, whether the articles are conveyed on one or more of the canals. Thus the tonnage of lumber shipped at Buffalo in 1852, was 81,102 tons, and the tolls collected thereon, were $59,340. If this was all white-pine carried on boats, the amount of the tolls shows that it had a movement equal to that of 20,000,000 tons moved one mile, or nearly equal to an average movement of 56,000 tons from Buffalo to tide-water. The tonnage of lumber shipped at Oswego is 147,086 tons, and the tolls collected thereon were $64,800, which shows a movement equivalent to that of 21,000,000 tons moved one mile, which, for the length of that canal, (38 miles,) would be equal to an average movement of nearly 570,000 tons from Oswego to Syracuse, (which is absurd,) or of 106,000 tons to tide-water. Three fourths of the movement of this tonnage and of the tolls is, therefore, evidently due to the Erie Canal, and one-fourth only to the Oswego. The tonnage and tolls on up-freight, on the other hand, are credited, in these reports, to the Erie Canal, when a portion of the movement and of the tolls is due to the lateral canals. This method of stating the tonnage of the several canals is incorrect, and operates so as to show a less amount done on the Erie Canal than is due to it, because the uptonnage is but one-fourth of the down-tonnage. The annexed table has been prepared from the reports of the business done in 1853, and shows the tonnage, tolls, and total movement of each article and class of freight on all of the canals: |