TAX ON WOMEN ENTERING BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1919, Page 5

TAX ON WOMEN ENTERING BRITAIN.

APPARENTLY A HOAX. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. At a meeting of the Canterbury Repatriation Board a telegram was read from Mr. J. D. Gray, secretary to the Ministerial Repatriation Board, as follows: "The Wellington papers have a Press Association message stating that a case of hardship has arisen owing to a soldier's widow desiring ,to return to England, and being unable to pay the £4O tax imposed by the Imperial Government on women entering the British Isles. This statement is not understood. So far as .the Government knows no such tax is payable, nobody has ever heard of it before, and the suggestion appears to be a hoax. As a matter of fact, the latest advice received from the High Commissioner is that the Imperial Ministry of Shipping has agreed, in certain specified cases of hardship, to transport soldiers' widows desiring to return from New Zealand to England at 'troop rates.'" / The chairman (Mr. A. W. Jamieson) said the board received its information from a reliable, source, and he did not think that they were the victims of a hoax. The matter was referred to the Sustenance Committee for further consideration.

ALLEGED BRITISH TAX. The statement was made by the Canterbury Repatriation Board at a meeting last week that before an overseas British woman is allowed to enter the British Isles to-day she is required to pay the sum of £4O. Members had doubts about this statement, but there was confirmation in a letter which the applicant, a soldier's widow, had received from the Commissioner of Pensions, Mr. 0- C. Faclie, to whom the matter had been referred in the first place. "Regarding the war tax mentioned by you," wrote the commissioner, "this is not a matter for my Department to deal with, but I have been making inquiries, and find that there is such a tax." The chairman, Mr. A. P. Drayton, remarked that the Imperial Government imposed the tax', and now the New Zealand Repatriation Department was asked to pay it. "Of course," said Mr. Drayton, "we have to bear in mind that New Zealand wants population. The tax might be to our advantage in the long run." Mr. 11, S. J. Goodman moved: "That, in regard to the tax levied upon women entering the British Isles, the Ministerial Board be requested to take steps to ask the Imperial Government to remove the tax upon soldiers' widows returning to their own people " mtitu* jsas .(Huski „ v