THE DUTY ON TEA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 260, 7 December 1914, Page 6

THE DUTY ON TEA.

To ..the Editor of THE StJN. Sir, —I was present at. Mr Isitt's meeting at Durham and Salisbury Streets.! After talking some time in his usual I ilowing language, about the uplifting i of the masses and the downtrodden workers, he returned to solid ground, j and started, to give us solid facts, and , thjs was the - greatest of them all: He stated that the worker was ground down through the Customs, the duty of 2d per lb upon tea was grossly unfair, that it should have been upon the value of the tea, so that if the worker paid 2d on his 1/r tea, the bloated capitalist should pay .6d on liis tea, which was assumed would cost 3/-. . He so worked himself up on this matter that one might have thought lie was thinking of another outrageous injustice to Ireland. Now, had Mr Lsitt been .more modest, and consulted the grocer N on the opposite corner to .which lie w"as speaking, he. would have learned that tea in "bulk, Ceylon and other, grown iii oar own colonies,. and which, .is the tea in. use by 95 out of every 100 of our people, bears no duty, and that the duty "Of 2d only applies to Ohinu f tea; and that imported in fancy packages. Mr Isitt might endeavour to be more correct in these small matters,' or how can the people of Christchurch T<7orth expect him to deal with much larger matters. —I am, etc., - ONE OF THOSE PRESENT. Christchurch, December. .7. [Wc have cut down, our, correspondent's letter, owing to exigencies of . I space.—Ed. The Son.] '