LUXURIES DEFINED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 204, 17 May 1918, Page 6

LUXURIES DEFINED

FRENCH CHAMBER'S LIST. What is luxury? The French Chamber of Deputies the Paris correspondent'of the "Daily Mail") has taken two months to decide the question, in connection with tho new law which places a tax of 10 per cent, on the purchase of all articles of luxury. It has succeeded almost unanimously in fixing 26 classes of goods which are luxuries, no matter vihnt their value, while t'hero are 77 categories which fall under tho tax only if they exceed a certain price. The lists which the Chamber approved are full of curiosities. . Silk uudergar* ments are always to be looked upon as luxuries, but linen ones only when tho cost exceeds ,il 12s. Scents are luxuries, but not scented soap, if worth less Mian Is. 8d You can buy a dog up to .El 12s. without,being taxed, but a cat becomes de luxe at Bs. A woman can pay £\ lis. for a hat and go free, but » man is restricted to 16s. In revenge he can indulge in boots un to £.2, while his wife must not exceed S\ 12s. A woman is luxuriously garbed only if her costume Posts XlO, but a man's £1 suit is a luxury. Yet he can pay up t° .fill for pyinmas without being taxed, but onlv Is. 3d. each for hnrolkcrehim. Luxury in furniture begins at .£6O tho suite. Upright pianos go free, but not gramophones if worth more than £5. Truffled chickens and Strassburg pics are luxuries, but wine only if it costs moro than 4a. a bottle.