Abolish N.G. Gold Tax
p. 24 · Read in the full issue
Mr. Green, M.P., "To Make Fight Pretty Hot"
THERE still is no decision by the Aus tralian authorities, on the applica tion to abolish the 5 per cent, gold royalty tax in New Guinea, so far as it applies to prospectors.
Mr. A. E. Green, M.P., brought the matter up in September, 1938, and the then Minister (Mr. Hughes) promised sympathetic consideration. Nothing was done. On May 4, 1939, Mr. Green again interrogated the Minister (now Mr. Per kins), and was informed “the matter is being kept under notice and a decision will be taken as early as practicable”.
Mr. Green, on June 16, indicated that his patience was exhausted, and he criticised the Federal Government and the New Guinea Administration in words of plain meaning. He said:— “In New Guinea owing to the inertia or obtuseness of the Administration—and I do not exempt the Administrator, though I have never before said a word against him —the iniquitous gold tax is still levied on prospectors, because the authorities, apparently, do not realise the value of what the prospectors have done, and are doing. If the Minister is unable to in fluence those who form the Administration in New Guinea, he should take steps to have them removed.
“The Legislative Council of New Guinea meets at Rabaul, hundreds of miles from where the gold was discovered. The mem bers of that Council are largely inter ested in copra and missions. They have single-track minds, apparently, and think only of planting. These are the people who are inflicting this injustice on the prospectors.
“Numerous letters have been sent to the department on this subject, and I should like to know what the Minister has been doing about it.
“If I live until the next meeting of Parliament, I intend to make this flght pretty hot, unless something has been done in the meantime. The prospectors could not be treated worse in one of the Latin-American countries in South America.”
The Minister made no reply.
Mr, Herbert Norris Hiskins, formerly of Norfolk Island, died in June at Napier, New Zealand, aged 80. Born in England, he took up journalism and roamed around the world as a press correspondent. Go ing to Norfolk Island in 1927 for a holi day, he decided to settle there and pur chased a plantation. He left N.I. for New Zealand about two years ago.