Of the fifteen millions of fractional currency still outstanding, only about eighty thousand has been redeemed the past year.  The suggestion that this amount may properly be dropped from future statements of the public debt seems worthy of approval.

So also does the suggestion of the Secretary as to the advisability of relieving the calendar of the United States courts in the southern district of New York by the transfer to another tribunal of the numerous suits there pending against collectors.

The revenue from customs for the past fiscal year was $198,159,676.02, an increase of $11,637,611.42 over that of the year preceding.  One hundred and thirty-eight million ninety-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents of this amount was collected at the port of New York, leaving $50,251,113.63 as the amount collected at all the other ports of the country.  Of this sum $47,977,137.63 was collected on sugar, melado, and molasses; $27,285,624.78 on wool and its manufactures; $21,462,534.34 on iron and steel and manufactures thereof; $19,038,665.81 on manufactures of silk; $10,825,115.21 on manufactures of cotton, and $6,469,643.04 on wines and spirits, making a total revenue from these sources of $133,058,720.81.

The expenses of collection for the past year were $6,419,345.20, an increase over the preceding year of $387,410.04.  Notwithstanding the increase in the revenue from customs over the preceding year, the gross value of the imports, including free goods, decreased over $25,000,000.  The most marked decrease was in the value of unmanufactured wool, $14,023,682, and in that of scrap and pig iron, $12,810,671.  The value of imported sugar, on the other hand, showed an increase of $7,457,474; of steel rails, $4,345,521; of barley, $2,154,204, and of steel in bars, ingots, etc., $1,620,046.

Contrasted with the imports during the last fiscal year, the exports were as follows: 

Domestic merchandise $883,925,947
Foreign merchandise 18,451,399
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Total 902,377,346

Imports of merchandise                              642,664,628
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Excess of exports over imports of merchandise       259,712,718

Aggregate of exports and imports 1,545,041,974

Compared with the previous year, there was an increase of $66,738,688 in the value of exports of merchandise and a decrease of $25,290,118 in the value of imports.  The annual average of the excess of imports of merchandise over exports thereof for ten years previous to June 30, 1873, was $104,706,922, but for the last six years there has been an excess of exports over imports of merchandise amounting to $1,180,668,105, an annual average of $196,778,017.  The specie value of the exports of domestic merchandise was $376,616,473 in 1870 and $883,925,947 in 1881, an increase of $507,309,474, or 135 per cent.  The value of imports was $435,958,408 in 1870 and $642,664,628 in 1881, an increase of $206,706,220, or 47 per cent.