Pay, Or Stay!

What Australian Tax Dept. Did to a Returning Papuan Planter

AS an example of how Australia treats Territorians, consider the case of Mr. A. E. Cridland.

Mr. Cridland was a senior officer of the Papuan Public Service. When he retired on superannuation, in the later ’thirties, he decided to remain in Papua; and he settled down on some land he had bought on the north-east coast, and began to plant rubber. He was going along quietly and comfortably when the Jap invasion came.- Then, with his wife and child, he was shipped away to Syd ney, at short notice. They lost prac tically all their personal possessions.

In Sydney, Mr. Cridland found a modest wartime job in a Government De partment. He drew his superannuation allowance, on which he was ferociously taxed, and a salary, which also was taxed.

Four years later, Mr. Cridland was given permission to return to his planta tion. He made the Territorians’ usual weary round—to Territories, to Shipping Office, to Travel Control, to Custom House, to Taxation—and slowly gathered all the documents necessary for travel in these bureaucrat-ridden days.

He produced to Taxation his receipts for income tax paid up to date. But Taxation grinned fiendishly, “You can’t

do that there ’ere,” said Taxation. Then, the Cndland income from superannuation was added to the modest Cridland income from the wartime job. “That total,” said Taxation, with glee, “makes so-and-so— and that puts you right up in another bracket.’ You are a bloated plutocrat, and you have been undertaxed. You should have paid at a much higher rate.”

AND there and then the unfortunate Mr. Cridland was informed that he could not get a clearance, which would allow him to travel to Papua, un less he paid up £5OO, uncollected tax.

Mr. Cridland is a fighter, and he re fused to pay. In any event, he was faced with heavy expense in rehabilitation, and £5OO mattered a great deal to him. But the Taxation Department stuck its toes in. “No cheque, no clearance,” it said.

Fnally, pending an appeal, a trust fund was created in Mr. Cridland’s bank he paid £5OO into it; if he loses the appeal, his £5OO goes into the maw of the Australian Treasurer. Mr. Crid land got his clearance, and sailed by the “Montoro.”

However, if he loses his £5OO, Mr. Crid land at least will have the satisfaction of knowing that he personally will be pay ing something towards the cost of the construction of a “model village” for Papuan natives, complete with electric light and modern sanitation.

Across the range, on their rubber plan tation, Mr. and Mrs. Cridland, and their little daughter, get along somehow with kerosene lamps, and much cruder sani tary conveniences. But they are only Europeans!