DROPPED TAXES.

Mataura Ensign, 24 May 1909, Page 4

DROPPED TAXES.

AN IXTKItIiSTIXU KIiVIEW. You get the worst matches in tin' world in l''rance (says n JJLonic paper). Matches in that country arc a (jovern-liu-nt monopoly, and out of tho detestable Inciters which it imiiuil'acturcs the I'Vcndi Exchequer makes tho comfortable prolil- of .1:950,000 a year. In l><7l, w lion Mr Robert Lowe liad to provide for a deficit of two millions, lie proposed a tax on matches at tin.' rate ol' a halfpenny per hundred. 'l'lio tax was to bo collected by moans of <i Government stamp on each box. tie reckoned ho would got nearly a million out ol' this tax, The moment this pnyiosal came to light, the match manufacturers combined against it, Deputations poured upon Westminster, and there were riots among the liisl Knd match girls. .Mr Lowe, bowed lii.s head to the storm, and when the liudgcl came out 1 there was no mention of any match Tax. Jt was this same -Mr Lowe who tried to change the income tax from so much in the pound to so much per cent. J He suggested 10s 8d per hundred pounds. Hut this proposal was disliked mainly because it was novel, and, like the match tax, it was given up. Xo tax among the scores of newones invented by I'itt was ever more disliked than the one Ik l imposed upon horses, .IJy way of protest a farmer. Jonathan Thatchers by name, gave up his horse and rode a coiv to ,Stockport market, lint Pitt stuck to his guns, or lather his horses, and the tax was net only passed, hut remaini'd in force for many years. When Mr (ioschen became Chancellor ho proposed ti> reimpose this tax, which had then been abolished lor more than a quarter of a century, liuthe people would have none of it and lie dropped it hurriedly. When the costs of the South African war faced our Budget with an enormous deficit one ol' the proposals which Sir .Michael Hicks-Jie.tcii seriously pit' forward was tl.at all cheques should bear a twopenny instead of the ordinary penny stamp. It seems curious that so astute a Chancellor could have listened to' such a foolish suggestion. As was promptly pointed out, the only result would be that for the transmission ol all small sums postal orders would lie used.- while the number of cheque:, used would ccrtainlv diminish. It was also Sir Michael Ricks-Beach who seriously considered a tax on aerated waters, lint when the news leaked out, the teetotal faddists raised such an uproar that the idea was dropped. How a strong Chancellor will carry through an unpopular tax was proved bv Sir Michael ami the coal tax. 'file opposition to the tax on exported coal was enormous, yet it went through and niter i; became law little more was hoard from its enemies.