New Zealand Mail Office, February 21. We are now well into the new year, and it 13 satisfactory to know that, all things considered, the Colony is in a prosperous state, that tho revenue keeps up well, and that business generally, though perhaps not so brisk as it might be, is fairly active, and giving prospects o f steady improvement. The Customs re turns are always looked upon as a fair criterion of the state of affairs in com msrcial circles, and it iu therefore highly satisfactory that the returns for the first month of 1804 should show a large in crease over those for the corresponding period of 1893. There is a large general increase, Wellington alone showing an augmentation of over .£IO,OOO as com pared with January of last year.
