KEROSENE UP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11478, 28 August 1915, Page 4

KEROSENE UP.

LARGE STOCKS CLEARED. DECLARATION SHOULD HAVE BEENMADE. It" the Government had called for j tt declaration of tho stocks oi oil in I ha ml at the tunc of delivering tho , Budget and hau imposed th>> <iui.y on . liiose stocks, a huge additional sum ; would have been received, and tint ! consumer would not have felt that ho j was being exploited in any degret. i This was the argument put forward j th is tnorniug by Mr J. 11. Pugh, of ; ii. i>. Low, grccera. lie found yester- ; day that a certain company could not ! supply keroseno without the duty addj cd, and in this fact ho saw a big loss ; of revenue, inasmuch as the stocks for I M3iiw time to come will be selling at I the increased price without having paid ithe duty j "■ A rough estimate of the amount I of petrol and kerosene in New Zeaj land yesterday morning," he said, I " might have represented a gain to the i country of £'S(A),OOO worth of duty. ! But <ii it i#< I don:t think that any storekeeper is justified in raising the price until ho is paying move for it." 31 r Pugh pointed out, in support of his argument, that stocks should have been liable for duty, that it would be a long time before any duty was paid. Nobody holding stocks would import and pay tho extra 4d a gallon until his present stocks were exhausted. Thus the actual collection of revenue Was put off till a maximum date. He pointed cut, also, that kerosea© had now gone np from 9s (ki to 12s a case. " A duty on kerosene in *ny tease hits the people who are least able to bear it," lie said. " A man from Av arua, Sir Jcseph Ward's electorate, was telling me that the bulk of the people there consume kerosene for lighting. The big squatter and landholder has his private plant for generating acetylene or electricity, but the men in ihe whare have to burn kerosene. On the west cast of both inlands. also, the bulk of tho lighting is obtained from kerosene."