NATURE FILM

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30405, 2 April 1964, Page 14

NATURE FILM

N.Z. Scenes ‘Wonderful’

A German photographer who came to New Zealand

with a limited, set plan of what he was to take spent very much more time and film than he had intended “because of the abundance of interesting wildlife and wonderful landscapes.” The photographer, Mr E. Schuhmacher, who is the official film representative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, came to the Dominion as part of a world-wide project to make a full-length film on nature conservation. The film will be shown soon in New Zealand, he says in a letter to his hosts. Mr Schuhmacher. was in New Zealand for a few months at the end of 1963 and early this year. He was given the full cooperation of the National Parks Authority and the Wildlife Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, to whom he wrote his letter. Among the subjects Mr Schuhmacher filmed were: Bird-life on Kapiti; captive rare birds at Mount Bruce; landscapes in the Tongarirc National Park; geysers a 1 Rotorua; tuatara and the Stephen Island frog or Stewart Island; bandin! Canada goose at Ellesmere albatrosses at Taiaroa Head landscapes and takahe ii Fiordland National Park; . mountain landscapes, kea ; and paradise duck at Mount Cook National Park; and landscapes in the Westland National Park. LOSS ON RADIOS Taxes More Than Cost (N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 1. Radio sets sent through the mail from Fiji to New Zealand are liable to duty and sales tax —sometimes amounting to more than the cost of the radio. A Customs Department spokesman said today that after many complaints from New Zealanders who had been sent radios, the department I had advised the Fijian Post Office of the position which had been given wide publicity in Fiji. He said that until about 10 years ago radios sent as bona fide gifts were exempt from sales tax if they did not exceed £lO in value. This law was amended as it became impossible for customs officers to distinguish between genuine gifts and those incorrectly declared as such. The position now is that a gift radio sent to someone in New Zealand required an import . licence and was liable to both duty and sales tax—about 131 per cent of the wholesale value if the set had not been manufactured in the Commonwealth.