INSULIN DUTY BEING REMOVED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 9

INSULIN DUTY BEING REMOVED

CUSTOMS MINISTER AND

CRITICS

Criticism levelled against the Customs Department in respect to the duty on. insulin, the new drug for the treatment of diabetes, wag replied to last night by the Minister of Customs (the Hon. W. Downie Stewart), who stated that the necessary steps were being taken to remove the duty. . Since returning to Wellington the Minister has been working with the Customs Department in order to discover a means of exempting the drug from duty. , Mr. Stewart said that he wished to protest against the unjust criticism which had been directed against the Customs Department. "It has been freely alleged that the Customs Department arrogates to itself the right to impose duties, and there seems to be an impression that the Customs Department can play fast and loose with the tariff schedules which have been sanctioned by Parliament," said the Minister. "These critics do not hesitate to denounce the Department in the most unmeasured terms, and accuse it of stupidity and inhumanity. One Press critic declared that the o,fncials did not care in the least what sufferers might die as a result of their action. In point of fact, there is no business man of experience who will not acknowledge that, as compared with the Customs Departments of other'countries, the administration of the New Zealand Customs Department is outstandingly fair; reason able, and helpful _to all who deal with it.. But it is impossible to see, in framing a tariff, every new contingency that may arise.

"Anyone who glances at the tariff will see'that the vast majority of the items which deal with drugs, medicines, and similar goods, are free of duty, and to a far greater extent, than in, the tariff of most countries, and where duties are imposed there is good reason for it. But in deciding under what head any -new item falls, the' Customs Department must be guided by «ie law and by its experts. If every "citizen, whether he be a doctor; or■ not>:is;~to be allowed to -.classify, new items .according to his. own ideas,'the tariff would.soon be in a hopeless muddle and full of unworkable anomalies. The Customs Department realised immediately this great importance of insulin, and the necessity for cheapening its use in the interests of humanity, but there is nothing to be gained by pathologists and doctors declaring that the action of the Department is unreasonable, and that, in their view, insulin ought to fall under.a certain heading, because, in the nature of things, they cannot know the difficulties of tariff interpretation. ■■

"The Customs Department did the only thing it could do, in • classifying insulin' as dutiable, pending; the exercise of any powers I might possess to grant relief. Now, it will be remembered that,, when the Customs Tariff was revised in 1921, I was constantly, attacked in the Press and elsewhere for taking too wide powers to myself in eeeking to., make the tariff reasonablyflexible. There is Ministerial power to modify the tariff in certain circumstances, where the public interest demands it, arid it is a necessary power to meet such emergencies as this of insulin. But it is only after numerous consultations with the experts, and in view of certain special considerations, which I need not, elaborate, that it has been found possible to meet this difficulty. I am glad that a way out has bpen found, but I.am of opinion that it would be more satisfactory to all concerned if critics had found out all the facts connected with the case before making charges against a public Department."