Page 5 Advertisements Column 4

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1920, Page 5

I raents for duty on imports from France based on the pre-war value of the franc. A parcel of crepe de chine, costing £3X3, was "valued" by the Customs Department at £1507, and the duty worked out at .CiiiU. A consignment of Dclgian cottun tweeds invoiced at £Sf>2, and the duly fixed at ■£l4l. An importation of silk invoiced at £10.5 was ■calculated by the Customs to be really worth £327.. and had to pay £lO7 in duty, which made the silk so dear as to : l>e "absolutely unsaleable.'' Jn ;a further case a parcel of woollen dress materials, costing £!()!), was valued for duty at £347, and the duty amounted to £l2O. These are cases apparently in which the duty was paid. They give an indication of what it must have been like in those instances of which a merchant remarked that it would pay him better to dump the stuff into tTie harbour than pay the assessed duty on it. One effect of the system is to foster trade in certain lines with Japan in-