“TAXED TO THE HILT”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18264, 6 December 1933, Page 9

“TAXED TO THE HILT”

THE POOR MAN’S PIPE FORTHRIC4HT CRITICISM Mr. Gerhard Hushecr, chairman of the National Tobacco Company, Limited, Napier, takes the Government to task over its taxation of tobacco grown and manufactured in New Zealand, lie states in the report of the company for the year ended October 31 last, that the year has been one of many disappointments aml difficulties, and not the least of them has been taxation. “The commodity in which we are dealing is taxed up to the hilt,” he continues. ‘‘Since the days of Massey, this true friend of New Zealand industries and enterprise, we have been harshly dealt with by the Exchequer, which lias' kept tho screw going almost constantly with little interruption until the cxeisoduty bus reached the staggering iigurc of '4s OJ,d per lb. This is the penalty we have to pay for having introduced a,' new industry. And, yet if it had not been for the tobacco industry, things would he looking very much worse. “Whole districts have actually been saved from ruin, and thousands of fanners arc . depending for their living solely upon : the returns' from their tor buceo , crops. And the manufacture oi the'raw leaf, keeps hundreds in employment; wlio otherwise "might have been on the dole. “Whiit has been our reward? No encouragement of any kind, little or. no protection against foreign dumping. Ready manufactured cut tobacco from abroad is admitted into New Zealand at. the rate of 6s lOd per lb., while l the local manufacturer has to pay 4s ,OJ,d in excise diity alone, and another 2s 6d Customs/if iio uses foreign leaf, thus a total of '6s which means that lie enjoys a, preference of 3Jd per lb. “We arc just tolerated a fid no more. TAX ON TAX “The increase in the excise duty, already alluded to, hiis been followed, ol course, by a. corresponding increase m the Cost of the manufactured article, and this lias in tiffin! afl'Ccted' tlifc deniand, „ln times of plenty the 'smoker' will liiercly growl, Dut ultimately pay. It is different to-dav, living under the shadow of this apqlo depression. . His eqriiings have shrunk, and he lias to cut Ins rations finer; some have to go •without. . “Out-of the vast, army of unemployed there are few who can pay. the price of a standard brand., And on top of this is the sales tax, Which',.;strangely enough, singles out the.poor man’s'pipe, leaving the cigarette a privileged smoke. “As ,a result of all this, consumption lias declined all round, though we lUfcVo managed' tp'fiiMd our own in spite ol a fierce competition.” 1