PARAGRAPH 261-ONIONS. Mr. PALMER. You were talking about the difference in the cost of production and I supposed you knew what onions were bringing in Spain. Mr. WEBSTER. No; I do not keep track of it. There is a small class of people in New York City who will buy foreign onions, but the larger class will not buy them unless they get our prices. a Mr. HARRISON. They are selling for 86 cents à bushel at our customhouse. Mr. WEBSTER. I presume so. TESTIMONY OF S. STANLEY SPURLING, OF SELECT COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT, REPRESENTING BERMUDA. The witness was duly sworn by the chairman. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Mr. Spurling. Mr. SPURLING. Mr. Chairman and honorable members of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, we have been delegated to appear before your committee to ask for a reduction in the duties levied under your present tariff on the vege table products of our islands. The vegetable products which we ship to New York are onions, potatoes, vegetables-that is, parsley, carrots, beets, lettuce, radishes, mint, turnips, kohlrabi, celery. Bermuda grows annually about 150,000 crates of onions on which the duty is 40 cents a bushel, or 37 cents a crate. This crop is marketed from the 1st of March to the end of May at a time when the demand in the United States for such a product is keen and the rate of duty seems to us excessive, being nearly 40 per cent as compared with the value in Bermuda. The effect of the present tariff is to exclude from the use of all except the well-to-do a wholesome article of diet as the high duty makes the cost excessive. The effect on us by your high duty has been to decrease our export of onions from 400,000 crates a season to 150,000, and this has deprived your poorer classes of the opportunity of procuring onions at a time when they are most to be desired, at prices within their means. Bermuda onions are largely recommended and used by physicians for the treatment of coughs and colds and as a preventive of consumption, on account of their peculiar medicinal properties. Bermuda exports to the United States from 35,000 to 45,000 barrels of potatoes, beginning in November and continuing to the middle of June. At this season we confidently state that no other new potatoes are obtainable in the United States, and the effect of your tariff is to increase the cost to the consumer and to limit our market. In this connection we might state that Bermuda rigidly inspects all seed potatoes before planting and destroys or causes to be exported immediately all diseased or scabby stock. This is done to keep our potato crop immune from scab and other diseases. The duty of 25 cents per bushel compares very unfavorably when we inform you that we import nearly all of our seed potatoes from the United States and admit them duty free. Bermuda ships annually to the United States from 150,000 to 200,000 crates of vegetables, from the first of November to the end PARAGRAPH 261-ONIONS. of June. These products are only procurable in a fresh state from Bermuda during your winter; and, with regard to parsley, any dealer will tell you that Bermuda parsley has a fullness, crispness, and flavor not to be found in any other. We have no complaint to urge with respect to the rate of duty except in connection with what we consider the extraordinary value for duty purposes recently put on these products by the customs appraisers in New York. The following shows the very large increases in values, which consequently means proportionately heavy duty. We understand the customs appraiser of New York based this new valuation on the average prices for the past three years in the New York market. This seems to us a remarkable method of arriving at the value of these goods. For instance, in assessing the duty on goods imported into Bermuda, we charge a duty of 10 per cent on the value of the goods at the port of shipment for Bermuda. This, of course, is based on, first, the cost of production; second, the profit to producer; and third, the charges, such as packing, etc. It would be, we contend, a most unreasonable thing to fix a value on which to assess the duty, on the average selling price for the last few years. If this increased valuation is to remain, we would ask for a material reduction in the rate of duty. The duty on celery is 25 per cent ad valorem, and we supply you exclusively in April, May, and June. Here, again, we advance the same argument that is, that the reduction of duty would give your people the opportunity to purchase at lower prices and would not prejudicially affect any growers in the United States. Bermuda has a rigid produce inspection act, under the provisions of which all our vegetable products have to be inspected before shipment. Quality, packing, grading, as to size, freedom from disease, and cleanliness and strength of crate or barrel are all carefully considered before the goods are passed. Bermuda has no discriminating tariff, and imports very largely from the United States. Thus, exports from the United States to Bermuda are $1,357,000; imports to the United States from Bermuda, $600,000. Over 80 per cent of Bermuda's imports are from the United States, and 98 per cent of Bermuda's exports go to the United States. Many of our largest imports from the United States come in free of duty. Bermuda for a good many years subsidized the line of steamers to New York. This has resulted in a great development of trade be 78959°-vol 3-13- -39 PARAGRAPH 261-ONIONS. tween the two countries and the expense has been borne entirely by Bermuda. In conclusion I humbly ask for a favorable consideration of the plea put forward by us on behalf of Bermuda for a reduction of duty on our products and which, if granted, will, we confidently assert, tend to increase our mutual trade, increase Bermuda's purchasing powers, and give to the consumers in the United States the opportunity of purchasing fresh vegetables during the winter months at moderate prices, at the same time not prejudicially not affecting any agricultural interest in the United States. We should like, on behalf of the Government of Bermuda, to express to you our appreciation of your courtesy in granting us this hearing, which we trust will lead to still closer trade relations between our respective countries. Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit at this point a copy of our tariff act. The CHAIRMAN. Give it to the stenographer and it will be printed in the record. BERMUDA. 1911-No. 44. THE CUSTOMS TARIFF ACT, 1911. [12th December, 1911.] Whereas it is requisite to pass a customs tariff act for providing a revenue toward the the support of the government of these islands: Be it, therefore, enacted by the governor, legislative council, and assembly of the Bermudas or Somers Islands as follows: 1. Interpretation of "goods."—In this act the word "goods" means and includes all kinds of goods, wares, merchandise, and live stock. 2. Import duties to be paid on goods imported or taken out of bond during 1912.-On all goods imported into these islands or taken out of bond from any bonding warehouse in these islands from the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twelve, to the last day of December in the same year, both inclusive, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and paid the duties provided by this act, that is to say: (1) Specific duties on goods in first schedule.-On the goods specified in the table of specific duties in the first schedule to this act the several specific duties therein respectively set forth. (2) Fifteen per cent on books under the copyright act, 1848.-On such books as are under the copyright act, 1848, liable to import duty, fifteen per cent ad valorem. (3) Ten per cent ad valorem on other goods except those exempted. On all other goods, except such as are mentioned in the table of exemptions in the second schedule to this act, and such other goods, if any, as are exempt from import duty under any other act, ten per cent ad valorem. 3. (1) Duties to be paid by importer or consignee. The said duties shall be paid by the importer or consignee of the goods to the receiver general, or other proper officer of the revenue department, at the office of the public treasury in these islands to the use of His Majesty, his heirs, and successors, for and toward the support of the government of these islands, to be applied to such objects as have been or shall be authorized by the legislature of these islands. (2) Specific duties to apply proportionately to other quantities. In every case in which a specific duty is imposed according to a specific quantity the same shall be deemed to apply in the same proportion to any greater or less quantity. (3) Provision for refund of duty on exported cigars manufactured in Bermuda from imported unmanufactured tobacco. The receiver general, on its being proved to his satisfaction that cigars manufactured in these islands from imported unmanufactured tobacco have been exported therefrom, shall pay out of the public treasury to the PARAGRAPH 261-ONIONS exporter such amount as shall in the opinion of the receiver general represent the duty paid on the unmanufactured tobacco used in such cigars. 4. One-fifth of duties to be paid in gold on amounts of £5, or multiples thereof.—Where the import duty payable at one time by one importer or consignee on any goods imported by one ship, or payable by any person on any goods taken out of any bonding warehouse at one time, shall be paid in coin to the amount of five pounds or upwards, one-fifth at least of such duties shall be payable in lawful gold coin; provided that such gold payments shall not be required except on amounts of five pounds or multiples thereof. 5. Landing tax on packages containing spirits in bulk.-On every cask or other package anded in these islands containing alcohol, arrack, brandy, cordials, gin, peppermint water, rum, shrub, or whiskey in bulk to the extent of not less than two gallons there shall be levied and paid by the importer or consignee into the public treasury, in addition to any duty payable on the contents thereof, a landing tax of three pence, which shall not be subject to refund as import dury. FIRST SCHEDULE. TABLE OF SPECIFIC DUTIES. (SEE SEC. 2 (1).) Arrowroot (unmanufactured). The hundred pounds, ten shillings. Arrack, brandy, cordials, gin, peppermint water, shrub, whiskey.-The gallon, six shillings and twenty-five per cent ad valorem. Alcohol and rum.-The gallon, five shillings and. twenty-five per cent ad valorem. Bananas, in the months of May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.-The bunch, two shillings and six pence. Bran, middlings, pollard, or gluten meal. The hundred pounds, three pence. Bicycles with wheels of not less than eighteen inches in diameter.-Each, five shillings. Bulbs of the Lilium Longiflorum and Harrisii type.-The thousand, ten pounds. Cartridges, ball, for pistols or revolvers.-The hundred, three shillings. Cigars. The thousand, fifteen shillings, or the pound, at the option of the importer, one shilling and sixpence and ten per cent ad valorem. Cigarettes. The pound, two shillings and six pence, and ten per cent ad valorem. Corn. The bushel of fifty-six pounds, two pence. Cornmeal. The hundred pounds, three pence. Cows, calves, heifers, and oxen.-Each four shillings, which shall not be subject to refund or drawback. Eggs. The dozen, three pence. Hay. The hundred pounds, three pence. Horses. Each, twenty shillings. Kerosene oil. The gallon, one-half penny. Malt liquor, cider, and perry.-The hogshead, twenty shillings. Malt liquor, cider, and perry, in bottles commonly called quart bottles.-The dozen, one shilling. Mixed grains, whole or cracked.-The hundred pounds, two pence. Oats. The bushel of thirty-two pounds, one penny. Oilmeal or linseed meal.-The hundred pounds, three pence. Pistols and revolvers-Each, ten shillings. Potatoes, other than sweet potatoes, during the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, and July.—The hundred pounds, two shillings. Potatoes, sweet, during the months of January, February, September, October, November, and December.-The hundred pounds, two shillings. Snuff. The pound, nine pence. Tobacco (manufactured), other than cigars or cigarettes.-The pound, one shilling; and ten per cent ad valorem. Tobacco (unmanufactured), stemmed. The pound, one shilling; and ten per cent ad valorem. Tobacco (unmanufactured), unstemmed. The pound, six pence. Drawback of duty not to be allowed on unmanufactured tobacco exported unless exported in its original condition. Turnips, during the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and December. The hundred pounds, five shillings. Wheat.-The hundred pounds, two pence. PARAGRAPH 261-ONIONS. Wine.-Twenty per cent ad valorem. Wood alcohol, wood naphtha, methyl alcohol, and methylated alcohol.-The gallon, three pence. SECOND SCHEDULE. TABLE OF EXCEPTIONS. (SEE SEC. 2 (3).) Baggage consisting of the wearing apparel and personal effects of a passenger, including articles for the personal or professional use of such passenger, but exclusive of goods intended for sale and goods not the property of such passenger; provided that duty shall not be charged on any spirits, wines, tobacco, cigars, or cigarettes brought by a passenger as part of his baggage and not intended for sale, not exceeding one bottle of spirits, one bottle of wine, one pound of tobacco, one hundred cigars, and one hundred cigarettes. Bells for churches or schools. Books except such as are under the copyright act, 1848, liable to an import duty of fifteen per cent ad valorem. Box material to be used for the exportation of produce grown in these islands. Bullion. Coals. Coffee. Coin. Cooperage stock, consisting of staves, heads, hoops, and lining strips. Electric cable and electric cable machinery and apparatus imported into these islands by any company or person under contract with His Majesty's Government with the view of establishing and maintaining telegraphic communication with places beyond the sea. Empty barrels. Fertilizers. Fire engines and all other articles imported by the corporation of Hamilton as part of the equipment of the Hamilton Fire Brigade. Firewood. Flour from wheat or rye. Fresh fruit, except bananas and watermelons. Goods imported into these islands for the use of His Majesty's land or sea forces or any department of His Majesty's service, being the property of His Majesty, on satisfactory proof being furnished to that effect, and the horses of military officers imported into these islands as a necessary part of their military equipment on satisfactory proof being furnished to that effect on compliance by the proper officer or officers of His Majesty's Government with any regulations made by the governor in council with respect to such importations: Provided, That no military officer shall, during his term of service in these islands, be allowed to import free of import duty more horses than shall be shewn by the certificate of the proper officer of His Majesty's service to be required by such military officer as a necessary part of his military equipment. Goods imported into these islands by or for the use of the naval commander in chief on the station and intended for use or consumption in his establishment or family in these islands. Goods imported on account of the government of these islands by any public officer or committee being the property of the public or purchased at the public expense. Goods imported by the corporation of the city of Hamilton for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a sewage system. Goods the property of any foreign or British Colonial Government imported into these islands for use at or in connection with any establishment or institution in these islands maintained by such Government solely for scientific purposes on proof to the satisfaction of the receiver general that such goods have been so imported. Goods imported into these islands by or under the authority of the proper officer of His Majesty's service to be appropriated as prizes for competition by His Majesty's land and sea forces at the annual Army and Navy rifle meetings; and Goods to be appropriated as prizes for ocean races finishing at or off these islands or for foreign yachts competing in the waters of these islands. Ice. Machinery for the purpose of boring for spring water. Organs for churches or schools. Paintings, engravings, photographs, and sculpture, whether monumental or otherwise. |