MENTAL PANGS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 118, 14 November 1925, Page 7

MENTAL PANGS

PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSCIENCE

PEOPLE WHO PAY WHEN IT

PRICKS.

Almost every Government .Department can record instances of payment of conscience money. The'last "Gazette" contained instances of receipt of two amounts of £20, which reached tho Treasury through the Land and Income fax Department) and inquiries revealed the fact that few years pass -without several similar instances, the amounts in this department usually ranging from £10 to £20. Larger sums than this have reached the Treasury, and sums as low as Is and 5s have been received. "As a rule,'' said the Commissioner of Land and Income Tax this morning, "the persons who send us conscience money are careful to give no hint of their identity. The words 'conscience tnoneyj' or 'income tax, conscience money,' are all that 'usually accompany such payments. The words, if not typed, are invariably printed, and it is by no means clear that the letters are posted in the towns where the people reside. Wo cannot, of course, give. the persons a receipt in these cases, but the money is' always paid into the Treasury, Which gives tho only receipt possible in the 'Gazette.' Tho letters are naturally never registered, and the amount is always sent in notes. We keep a record of the date, and the number and denominations o^ the notes, and once it came in useful. An inspector, in the course of his investigations, found out that there had been a short payment. The person concerned, a methodical man, had kept his own record of the notes, and was able to prove that he had paid the amount due some time before as 'conscience money/ and the amount was duly credited to him.

INEXPLICABLE ATTITUDE.

The , mental attitude of persons who pay conscience money is hard to explain. Perhaps it is the dual personality that lives in most of ua. Just why a man evades a payment which he knows is due, and is able to make, and later makes it, it ibexplicabk except from the fact that he obtains mental relief from the payment. This, although it may not be enough, is something that alienates the mental uneasiness stirred up by conscience. Persons repaying large amounts in this way are never humorous in their brief communications, which are couched to hide identity. Nobody likes paying income tax, and plenty of mental excuses present themselves in such circumstances. The person may be of opinion that because others succeed in evading payment, he is a fool to pay. Then there is the everpresent feeling that after all the evasion may be discovered. 'This should have^ been paid long ago' is, however, the' most committal statement I remember to have seen for some years." The Railways and Customs Departments have similar experiences. The peculiar mental attitude was shown in the case of the latter Department in one instance. The persou was in this case fliied £1, and given time to pay it, but left it so long that a date was fixed by which payment must be made, or the amount; would be recovered by law. The person disappeared, but someone sent on £1 as conscience money, and circumstances pointed to only one individual who had thus "saved his face" through the back door.