TAXATION IN GERMANY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15955, 17 October 1922, Page 3

TAXATION IN GERMANY

LEVIES OX VISITORS. Elcc- Tel. CopyrigUt—United Press Assn., (Reuter's Telegram ) (Received October 17, 12.25 p.m.) BERLIN, Oct, 16. The hotels have notified that, in addition to the present Federal tax, thirteen per cent, will be levied by the municipality. Visitors must pay taxes on rooms ringing from fifteen to forty per tent, in the case of Germans, and seventy-five to eighty per cent, in the case of foreigners not residing in Berlin. The hotels are collecting the taxes under protest.

WELL-FED, HAPPY PEOPLE. CONTRAST IN NORTHERN FRANCE “The German people, as a people, are better fed, better clothed, and happier than the people of any other country 1 visited,” said Mr. J. .1, McGrath, barrister, of Wellington, who lias returned from England. Mr. McGrath and his wife have, been away a little over 10 months, and their tour included Egypt, Palestine, Italy, Franco, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain.

Nearly five weeks were spent by the travellers in Germany, most of the time being occupied in motoring. Everywhere (he country was closely cultivated, and all the factories, judging by the smokestacks, were working at full pressure. No signs of poverty were discernible, the people being remarkably well-clad and nourished. They all seemed to be working hard and they were to be seen it; the lields from daylight until 10 o’clock at night. The shops were full of beau ti ful manufactured goods. The only trouble for the German people was the great fall in the value of the mark. Living in a first-class hotel in Germany cost only 5s a. day, in spite of the fact that visitors were charged double the rates for German people. The railway fares would shock the New Zealand authorities. Imagine travelling 400 or 500 miles for only 5s 6d ! Yet that is what an all-day journey from ARinieh to Dresden cost, in Munich 14 bottles of beer, “the finest beer in the world,” said Mr. McGrath, could be bought for Is, and the finest cigars be had ever smoked in his life cost only Id each. Mr. and Mrs. McGrath were in Berlin when Dr. Rathenau was assassinated, and they managed to get away only a few hours before martial law was proclaimed. The intense hatred which the German people had for France was exceeded only by their detestation of England. When Mr. McGrath called upon tlie German .Consul in London for a passport, tho Consul inquired whether New Zealand people were as intensely patriotic'ns they were during tlie war. That plainly showed his opinion of New Zealand. Ju contrast to the'undisturbed condition of Germany was the desolate apNorthern France. After leaving Germany, Mr. and Mrs. McGrath went to Verdun and travelled along the battlefields, north of France, and in Belgium. Not only were tlie buildings in Verdun, Rheims, Armontiers, Lillo and other places smashed, but the country, too, was destroyed. There were huge shell holes everywhere and millions of tons of barbed wire. The people were poorly clad and poorly nourished.