Page 315 - Constructing Craft

12
Crown Lynn had employed an English trained potter, Ernest Shufflebottom, to make the work
Smišek decorated. See Elliott and Skinner, p.61.
13 Tom Devlin, email to the author, October 2010.
14
Royce McGlashen, email to the author, 30 September 2010.
15
In 1963 there were 92 foundation members of the New Zealand Society of Potters. To be a member
a potter had to have exhibited in two NZSP exhibitions and at the time this was the only measure of
professional status. In 1979 it was estimated there were 500 full-time potters. See Neil Grant, Howard
Williams, and and New Zealand Society of Potters, eds, Then & Now: New Zealand Society of Potters
Inc, Christchurch, 2009, pp.7,19.
16
It was claimed that 50% of craftspeople were potters. This probably meant that 50% of those
earning most of their income from craft were potters. See 'Press Statement: Taxation on Crafts', New
Zealand Crafts, 1 July, 1982, p.15. See also Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax on Craft
Activities, AALR, 873, W5427, Box / Item 1911, Part 2, Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
17
Ernst Plishke was friendly with Lucie Rie. The owners of Cadeaux, Hans & Olga Frenkel, were also
refugees from Europe. Their link to studio pottery was established when their daughter, Lisa, married
the son of Muriel Rose, the author of one of the first books on studio pottery in Britain, Artist Potters in
England.
18
Wilf Wright, 7 February 1999, interview with Moyra Elliott and Damian Skinner, Visual Culture in
Aotearoa Oral History Archive, Te Papa.
19
ibid.
20
In 1979 it was claimed that crafts products occupied a maximum of 10 – 15% of the domestic
market. See ‘Draft Memorandum for Cabinet’, Office of the Minister for Customs, 16 October 1979,
Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax on Craft Activities, AALR, 873, W5427, Box/Item 1911,
Part 2, p.5. Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
21
Helen Sutch, email to the author, 23 September 2010. Government spending as a percentage of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had increased from 25 per cent in 1969/70 to 38.4 per cent in
1978/79. As a result tax had risen from 21.3 to 28.4 per cent of GDP in the same period. See Paul
Goldsmith, We Won, You Lost. Eat That! A Political History of Tax in New Zealand since 1840,
Auckland, 2008, p.275. Also see H. C. Templeton, 'Does Government Value Craftspeople?', New
Zealand Potter, 21, 2 1979, p.19.
22
Goldsmith, p.295. See also Michael Bassett, The State in New Zealand, 1840-1984: Socialism
without Doctrines?, Auckland, 1998, p.355. Taxes were also imposed on boats and caravans and in
1982 more items were added, including books. In 1986 all sales taxes were replaced with a universal
Goods and Services Tax (GST) set at 10%. See Jane Kelsey, The New Zealand Experiment: A World
Model for Structural Adjustment?, Auckland, 1995, p.3.
23
Christopher Thompson, 'Confronting Design: Case Studies in the Design of Ceramics in New
Zealand', Master of Art and Design thesis, Auckland University of Technology, 2003, p.191.
24
For instance, jewellery was taxed at 40% and leatherwork at 20%. In addition, similar items could be
taxed at 0%,10% or 40% depending on whether they were defined as ‘art’, ‘functional’ or ‘decorative’.
See Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax on Craft Activities, AALR, 873, W5427, Box / Item
1911, Part 2, Archives New Zealand, Wellington. Across all goods made in New Zealand there were
eighteen different tax rates and over three hundred exemptions. This resulted in some bizarre
distinctions being made. For instance, men’s jewellery, such as cufflinks, had a lower rate than did
women’s earrings because cufflinks were deemed to be a necessity while earrings were ‘sheer vanity’.
See Stephen Stratford, The Dirty Decade: New Zealand in the 80s, Auckland, 2002, p.73.
25
New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, (NZPD): First Session, Thirty-Ninth Parliament, vol. 424,
(1979), p.1616.
26
For instance, of the 272 potters who took part in a 1983 survey of craft only 30 (11.1%) had a
turnover of more than $20,000. See Neil Scotts and Peter Mounsey, Craft New Zealand. A Study of
the Craft Industry, Craftspeople and Their Training Needs, Wellington, 1983. Part 3, p.39. Another
example is the claim made by the Craft Council of New Zealand in 1982 that of the 45,000 people the
Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax stated were ‘professional or semi-professional’, only 2000
‘would earn a full-time income as self-employed craftspeople’. 'Press Statement: Taxation on Crafts',
p.15.
27
NZPD: First Session, Thirty-Ninth Parliament, vol. 424, (1979), p. 1618. It is unknown where
Butcher or Templeton obtained their figures. Thompson claimed that Templeton’s figure in particular
was improbable. See Thompson, p.182.
28
1979 ‒ 1982, Interdepartmental Committee on Sales Tax on Craft Activities, AALR, 873, W5427,
Box / Item 1911, Part 2, Wellington.

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