Pay Primage

N.G. and Papua Must Pay Primage

SOME time ago the Island Trade Section of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, on the suggestion of Mr. R. W. Robson, directed the attention of the Federal Min ister for Trade and Customs to an ap parent anomaly, which lay in the fact that while the products of Norfolk Island were allowed to enter the Commonwealth free of all Customs and allied duties, the products of Papua and New Guinea were subject to primage. The argument was submitted that as Papua and New Guinea were just as much a part of Australia as is Norfolk Island, it was only fair that Australian producers in the former Ter ritories should have the same assistance and privileges.

The Minister duly replied that the posi tion of the two large Territories is dif ferent from that of the small Territory because, under the Norfolk Island Act of 1913, it is provided that duties of Customs shall not be charged on imports from Norfolk Island. He also said that he had received many requests for relief from primage duty and that the tax is a revenue impost and exemptions are necessarily subject to considerations of Government finance. The position of Papua and New Guinea would receive at tention when the question of further ex emptions is being considered.

EDITORIAL NOTE. —This is typical of the man ner in which bureaucracy evades direct issues and shelters itself behind rules and regulations.

Why, in the name of common-sense, should the products of Papua and New Guinea be taxed with primage while the products of Norfolk Island are free? Why should they be taxed at all? Why should there be any distinction made between the products of Papua and of the Northern Territory, which for administration purposes and from the point of view of Government authority are exactly equal in their relationship to Canberra? It seems that the Commonwealth Government, like the un fortunate Spanish maiden of the rude old song, seeks safety by having one invariable answer to all propositions, namely, “No, Sir —No!”