"ENDtESS CONFUSION AND ANNOYANCE."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 662, 12 November 1909, Page 5

"ENDtESS CONFUSION AND ANNOYANCE."

A:.DPNEbIN:;,IMPORTER'S; OPINION;. ; '(By. Telegraph-Prose Association.) . • ■„.!."• .'-i'.. Y ' Dunedin,, November 11. Business and commercial men express strone disapproval of the extra 1 per,cent, duty on' dutiablu .articles. ..One importer expressed himself thus:' "It' is a most iniquitous business, putting-us to the trouble of collecting a oalbr tax like that. A special difficulty is .that 1 -it means • producing invoices '. every time we take goods out'of bond. We have goods there that might go baok. ten years or more, such as spirits and tobacco,'and yet we have to go. to , the trouble of hunting up these invoices before we can ;taka them, pnt. Suppose a merchant sells goods out of 'his; bond to .an opposition house, as is often done. The opposition house has now to get the invoices, and can" thus see the private price at which the first house obtained the goods. It. is \simply. ridiculous, forcing us in this way to, reveal business toour.neiglibo.urs.- Altai-oU6Hgar of one-eighth of a penny per lb. would /have provided the whole amount with much less trouble and less cost .to" everybody- concerned. . It will be' more' costly to the Customs themselves to oollect the extra.' dular ou every dutiable utiole raUu

than on one single thing as inig'ht have been done. Tho new proposal will- put..the wholo commercial and business community to-end-less_ troble, confusion,' and anfopyauce. Already! it had been an awful nnisa.ico, and we. are only beginning. Why should an alteration in the tariff ceme into operation right off? Wo win Have to adjust/all onrprices- because this ,1 per cent.,is a considerable factor to importers with the fineness to which modern business nns now neen brought and the difficulty and expenso of securing and maintaining business. The surtax might have l)een made a pcrcciitago. on; the ; duty" chargeable, :i.0., instead of charging 3s. 66', duty .oil tobacco, (ind. Iheij; 1 per cent, on the value of that tobacco, with the ..trouble involved, in the collection of,, that sum, the extra charge might have been estimated on the duty itself. When a 'general'rise: in prices has been made to compensate for the extra 1 per cent., it will probably be found that merchants, will be almost compelled by reason of the infinitesimal amounts to collect more) than 1 per cent., and when the temporary period for which the tax has been imposed is up, prices will largely have become customary on their higher level, and will-not fall all round ..as would be possible were the tax on the oneitenv of, sugar."- ;■"• ..'*.•' ,' ".:'■