SPIRITS AND TOBACCO THE RUSH TO CLEAR FROM BOND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 149, 25 June 1915, Page 8

SPIRITS AND TOBACCO THE RUSH TO CLEAR FROM BOND

EXPECTED INCREASE IN DUTY. There ha* been considerable activity at the Custom House during the past two or three days in the clearance from bond of large quantities of tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, and wines and spirits. This is in' anticipation of an increase in the duty on these articles, which, it is believed, the Government is about to make. The duty on unmanufactured tobacco is 2s per pound, and on manufactured tobacco' 3« 6d, or cay a fraction over 2|d per ounce, or about sid duty on a shilling two-ounce tin of tobacco. South African tobacco sold at the same price a« other tobaccos, viz., od per ounce by tho ounce or two-ounce lines, paye a duty of 2s 6d per pound only under a special tariff with British South Africa. The Is difference in that case does not appeal- to reach the consumer, nor does it benefit the State's revenue. Cigarettes pay a duty of 17ft 6d per 1000 when not exceeding 21 pounds per 1000. Cigarettes of heavier weight pay 7s per pound. Cigars pay 7s per pound duty, and reckon^ in the weight is the band, wrapping, w any attachment to tho cigar. ■ Whisky,_ the favourite spirit, and all other spirits usually drunk, and wino with more than 40 per cent, proof spirit, pay 16s per gallon dnty, or 2s 8d per bottle duty. With regard to £ wide , margm between the duties on South African wm© and wines Of Australia and foreign countries, there ie nothing to Bhow that the retail purchaser of a single bottle of South African wino receives the benefit of the lower duty, even if he asks for and knows what ne is buying. The all-round price of 6d a drink over the bar would, of course, preclude his obtaining ally benefit of the low duty of 2s per gallon on South African wine. The State derives only its bare 2s per gallon revenue on thie wine. Sparkling wines (mostly champagne) from all countries pay 9s per gallon, or Is, 6d per bottle, duty. The averago wine bottles go six to the gallon or twelve to two' gallons— the minimum quantity that can be sold wholesale. It would seem that Auckland is alarmed at the poaeihihty of an increase in the duty on spirits, and has placed extensive orders with firms in the South Island, and to some extent in Wellington. Auckland, m fact, ie either short of stocks of spirits or is accumulating large stocks of duty-paid spirits. While some Wellington firms have' been drawing spirits, wines, and tobacco out of bond extensively, during tho .past two or three days, others have • been doing bo in comparatively small quantities for two or three months past. Some firms, however, .it is- understood, have taken no, move . in th© matter, merely withdrawingfrom bond sufficient for the normal requirement* of their trade. Official figures are necessarily unobtainable, but' it is believed that duty paid on ac;ount of wines, and spirits and tobacco and cigars and cigarettes withdrawn from bond will have reached in Wellington this week approximately