DUTY ON KEROSENE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 9

DUTY ON KEROSENE.

NAVARINO SHIPMENT. j EXPLANATION BY MINISTER.! [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington*, Friday. It was stated in the New Zealand Herald on Tuesday that some comment had been made on the fact that when several thousand cases of kerosene and benzine were discharged from the Navarino and taken delivery of by the consignees, no mark was placed on the cases or tins to show that the new war duty had been paid. When this matter was referred to the Minister for Customs, the Hon. A. M. Myers, he stated that it has already been pointed out by the Minister for Finance that the marking of these cases would involve a great expenditure of labour and would delay the discharge of the steamer, which was urgentlywanted for other purposes. Further, the marking of the cases would have been of little use and would have been a direct incitement to fraud. For instance, storekeepers holding duty - free stocks could sell the tins from duty-paid cases, and keep on replacing them with duty-free tins. The tins could not be satisfactorily marked, except by a slow process of pasting on special labels, which would entail opening and renailing every case. The proposal to mark cases was, therefore, abandoned. The Minister added that it had already been officially announced that any person suspecting that he is being overcharged had only to make a complaint. An inquiry would then be made, and if wrong had been done a prosecution would immediately follow.