Abstract
EARLY this year (NATURE, Feb. 20 and April 2), we commented on the unfortunate effect on scientific and educational progress in Australia likely to be produced by the primage duty and sales tax on books, periodicals and magazines. We welcome, therefore, the announcement made on November 10 in the House of Representatives by Mr. Lyons, the Prime Minister, that these taxes are to be abolished (Sydney Morning Herald). They were introduced, with much other taxation, as part of the emergency measures necessary to meet the financial situation in Australia. A duty of 10 per cent on imported books and a sales tax of 6 per cent, together with the depreciation of Australian money, was clearly a heavy burden for scientific workers and others anxious to keep abreast of the times to bear, and an influential deputation waited upon Mr. Lyons asking for the remission of these taxes. As we pointed out at the time, and also when the Import Duties Bill proposing a duty of 10 per cent on goods imported into Great Britain was before the House of Commons, the revenue to be expected from the taxation of scientific literature in particular is negligible; such duties increase the cost of research and thereby hamper progress. Now that the budgetary position in Australia has improved to the extent that reduction of taxation can be considered, we are glad to find that the abolition of the primage duty and sales tax on literature is in the first group of measures brought forward.
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Imported Books in Australia. Nature 130, 991 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130991a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130991a0