SHOULD BACHELORS BE TAXED?

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 208, 29 May 1926, Page 22

SHOULD BACHELORS BE TAXED?

PAST EXPERIMENTS

Sir Robert Horne, one-time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a hardened bachelor, has come to the rescue of the bachelor threatened once again with taxation, merely because he is not a Benedict. "Leave the poor bachelor alone” is the gist of Sir Robert’s remarks. This exhortation will find a fervent echo in every bachelor’s heart. Bachelors are already taxed more heavily than the married couple. Besides, what would the girls do if all the bachelors had their surplus income soaked by the Exchequer? They would find themselves without escorts for dances, theatres, little dinners, all those gay and charming outings that cost the bachelor so mucii hard-earned money. They would have to court the bachelor instead of having the bachelor court them. The Free States—lrishmen are very sentimental and dearly love to urge the young people into marriage—has decided to tax the bachelor to the tune of 25 per cent, of his inSojne. Unless officials are married, they will get much less pav. Will this cause the marriage rate in romantic Ireland to shoot up ? Shall we have the mulcted Irish bachelors hastilv proposing to their typists ano secretaries in order to get the larger rate of pav scheduled for the married? Possiblv—but how unromantic! What a bad basis on which to enter the great adventure of marriage! . Thev tried tlie same thing tn France

and iu Turkey. In the latter country, under an autocracy, they were especially severe. But the results were most disappointing So far the marriage rate has shown no appreciable rise as a consequence. Several of the greater English statesmen, now dead and oone conceived the same idea for increasing the revenue and the marriage rate at” once, and put it into practice in various ingenious ways. But it never did any good and it was soon dr in P olden time, in ancient Greece and Rome, they had periodical drives against the bachelor. In Sparta, the maidens at the great feast day once a vear were licensed to bait any bachelor thev could find, and many a wretched young man, who was’ cither holding off marriage or could find no girl to take him, had a rough time. In old Athens no one could hold high army rank, or sit in Parliament, unless he were a married man with children. And tn many countries the obstinate bachelor was alwavs in danger of being dosed with frightful love potions by a witch doctor in the pay of a mother with an unmarried daughter. Civilisation gives the bachelor, equal rights with the married man. This is just. It is also right. Bachelorhood is expensive Modern girls ate exigeant in their demands. The courting bill is invariably a long one, and if the bachelors are soaked bv the State the girls are more likely to get left than wooed lavishly, and married.—" Calcutta Statesman.”