SQUEEZED ORANGE

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31003, 8 March 1966, Page 21

SQUEEZED ORANGE

Court Ruling Sought (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, March 6. A Supreme Court judge has been asked to consider the case of the squeezed orange. The problem: was the juice extracted by a hotel barman or waiter a “manufactured” orange drink? Government revenue officials claimed it was and that the drink was a manufactured beverage liable to purchase tax. The Savoy Hotel Company —owner of London’s Savoy, Claridges and Berkley Hotels —contended that the tax was not payable. Mr Justice Sachs, who decided he needed time to ponder the matter, had been told it was by no means a case of trivial consequence. “There are something like 100,000 glasses of orange juice a year sold in these three hotels, said counsel for the plaintiff, Britain’s Tax Commissioner. The tax involved amounted to about £3750 a year. The Judge asked that if someone squeezed an orange in his home, would he be dignified with the name “manufacturer?” Counsel: Yes, this follows from my argument. For the hotel group, a lawyer said that a waiter extracting juice from an orange could not be said to “make” orange juice any more than a farmer extracting milk from a cow “made” milk.