Higher Duties In
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
Solomons.
Crude Oil and Timber.
From Our Own Correspondent.
TULAGI, April 30.
CRUDE oil, which, for some obscure reason, has hitherto come in free of duty (while benzine, a much dearer commodity used for the same purpose, was charged 3d. per gallon), is now to pay a duty of 12½ per cent, ad valorem.
Timber, which was charged 1/6 to 2/- per 100 ft super, is also altered to 12½ per cent. This will mean an in crease of duty in the case of the better quality timbers of about 500 per cent., which, to say the least, is uncalled for.
Fostering a local industry may be a slight excuse, but we have no local in dustry. Several have tried and failed hopelessly.
Vanikoro kauri is the only known timber suitable for boat-building and similar work, which might be milled here in commercial quantities, but, so far, all we have seen of it (if any) has been shipped south in the log and re turned here probably as New Zealand kauri, carrying in the past 2/- per 100 feet duty, and from now on about 10/per 100.
Marine transport must at all times be a most important item in the develop ment and commerce of this group, and it seems to be a matter of common logic that boats and fuels should be as cheap as possible, but evidently the authorities (probably in Fiji) think otherwise.
We are quite aware of the fact that revenue must be collected, but surely it would not be hard to find a wiser method of doing it. As for the policy of increasing taxation at a time like this —well, need we go further than New South Wales for an example?