THE POWDER TAX

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 12

THE POWDER TAX

In declining to impose an Excise duty on face-powder, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ignores a clear historical precedent, says the "Manchester Guardian." An earlier Chancellor was not so averse from winging fashion as it flew. Pitt,, ever in search of pittances for the French war, seeing wigs ceasing to grace the heads of the gallants and powder taking their place, straightway imposed a poll tax. The "Macaroni"—the masher of the daywas rivalling the powdered flunkey, and in 1795 Pitt required every person using r# vder to register at a stamp office and take out a guinea licence each year for the privilege. In a merciful moment, however, he granted exemptions. The Royal Family and their servants, clergymen suffer n<? incomes of less than £100 a year, and various naval and military worthies were put on the free list, The exemptions notwithstanding, the duty yielded £210,136 the first year. Then it dwindled, people following the French fashion of Napoleon and cropping their hair. In 1812 some 46,684 persons paid toll; in 1819 the number had fallen to 31,333, and when the duty was repealed in 1816 the yield was only £1000. But surely our modern miss would' not give way in the face of duty so easily as this.