Abroad

Duty Free and Otherwise A LTHOUGH Shannon, in Ireland, A was the first—or one of the first —with a duty-free shop at its airport, few countries in the world have now failed to fall into line with this tourist gimmick. All of them sell the same lm< ; s whl f ky ’ French perfurn , watches, ra ? l ° s ’ ta recorders and cameras but not all at same New Pr f ces J a d bout the same as at Sydney’s Kinsford-Smith airport—but Fiji, which has removed all duties all the above lines, in or out Q f duty-free, airport shops, has a very considerable edge on both.

New York’s Idlewild airport also has duty-free shops where goods are sold less local purchase tax and less duty. By and large the range of goods is not nearly as extensive as in other countries—probably

because the United States is still young at the game of r ‘° u f t purchase taxes are a trap for unwary ■— P isitors . Although most countries have now cottoned on to this means of raising revenue, with most the decently buried in thepurchase price never turns out to be what it seemed in the first place.

Qne of the biggest anoma lies in depar(ment happens in the State j-£ awa ji. Apart from the manu facture 0 f woo den platters and bowls from imported ra n tree wood, and the manufacture of muu-muus and shirts frQm importe( j co tton material, Hawaii has only Qne dis tin C tly Polynesian manufacture - plaited ware handbags. These are the smartest things of their kmd to come out of the who . le J ac 'sj b cf a i 5 be B. m around s B > plu *. ?*? te Feder f. p u. r , cha^ something like $2 on top o .

Why a home industry of this kind should be penalised is one of the mysteries but until Hawaii does some thing about it, the plaited ware turned out in American Samoa still gives the best value on the quality price basis.