S.A. gifts under study

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 1

S.A. gifts under study

PA Wellington Customs officers in Wellington are investigating the presentation by the South African Rugby Board of diamond cufflinks and necklaces to all 18 New Zealand Rugby Union councillors and their wives. The "New Zealand Herald" newspaper said yesterday that the gifts had been made by the South African board in gratitude for the councillors' support during the Springbok tour.

But Mr Robin Dare, a chief Customs officer with the enforcement division of the Customs Department in Wellington, said yesterday that officers were investigating the gifts to ensure that the appropriate duty and sales tax had been paid. The newspaper estimated that the value of each pair of cufflinks was $5OO and the necklaces about $lOOO. It said duty and sales tax payable on the jewellery would amount to 120 per cent. Mr Dare would not specify who would be liable to pay the duty and tax, but said that if the amount had not been paid it would become a Crown debt.

The "Herald” quoted the president of the South African Rugby Board, Dr Danie Craven, as saying the gifts had been made at ,the expense of the board as “gestures of gratitude for the stand of the councillors for sport, for rugby, and for South Africa."

Dr Craven’s counterpart in the New Zealand union, Mr C. A. Blazey, said he had had no hesitation in accepting the gifts and said- they were a gift of “good will from the South African Rugby Board."