HUNT FOR MONEY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 139, 16 June 1930, Page 8

HUNT FOR MONEY

«. EETBOSPECTIVE DUTIES

HEAVY BOND CLEARANCES

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post."). DUNEDIN, This Day. All this week thcro have lbcon clearances from 130114 of goods upon which the Prime Minister's hunt for money may impose extra duties. So far as Dunedin is concerned, the clearances have been particularly large in spirits, and it is said that this clearing is originated not by the merchants, | but by their customers, many persons i ordering on a heavier scale than usual. Mr. Forbes's threat to make the Customs duties retrospective if the iiature of the clearances warrants such a step is being keenly debated. Parliament can, of course, pass any constitutional Act it likes, but could a retrospective duty be enforced? That is the proposition round which argument is pursued. "Three or four years ago," said one merchant, "Parliament agreed to a retrospective duty on oil, but difficulties arose, and the Act -was not enforced. That was the only instance of the sort I can remember in forty years' experience. If the Prime Minister is serious about economising, I offer a hint: Let him abolish the Legislative Council and 'Hansard,' and save nearly a million. Such a proposal would,, of course, lead to difficulties, but not of a greater kind than he is now facing."