WHEN DUTY CALLS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 186, 28 November 1941, Page 6

WHEN DUTY CALLS

"Apply," said the Post Office goddess, "to the New Zealand Government offices. They will give you a list of what is dutiable and what is not." That is how I come to be in possession ol' a marvellous document intended to assist me in sending a Christmas present to poor Bill, my brother-in-law, who last year conceived such a passion for the wideopen spaces that he went straight olf to Hokitika .-without shedding a tear, writes E. H. White, in the "Evening World," published in Bristol. I thought a pipe would help him to recall the dear departed days (before my marriage) when our feet used to share the same mantelpiece of our delightful digs. But I didn't -want to send him a pipe il the poor fellow had to pay 5/- duty—more than the pipe was worth. So f wrote to the Powers. Such kind Powers the.v are! Thev have sent me this marvellous document—and now I knowJ Ii know, for instance, that I can send to New Zealand a live canary, • free of tax, but if I want to make sure that it will not starve I have to pay 20 per cent of the value of the bird seed. I refuse to send Bill ton of onions. If they were home-grown I should have to pay £1 for them, and if I bought them from a Breton 'Johnny' I should have to 1 pay £1 1/-. A scandal,. I call it. Neither shall I select for .miChristmas gift "lard, stearinc, nor refined animal fat," for it is very expensive when you add the 20 per cent tax. It must be refined animal fat, too—the refined is in italics, and I don't think our pigs are very refined. (To be continued).