FREAK TAXES.

Mataura Ensign, 24 August 1910, Page 5

FREAK TAXES.

BEARDS, BIRTHS, AND BRICKS. There have been mayn strange experiments in taxation in English History. Henry VIII. taxed beards, and graduated the tax according to the position of the wearer. The Sheriff of Canterbury was constained to pay the sum of 3s 6d for the privilege of wearing whiskers. Elizabeth likewise put a similar tax on every beard of over a j fortnight's growth. 'Elizabeth was also ' bent on making the country of a religious turn of mind, and all who stayed away from church on Sunday rendered themselves liable to a fine. In 1695 it was decided that births should be taxed. The birth of a child to a duke cost the proud father £3O in taxes, while the coming of a commoner child into the world was made the occasion of a tax of 2s. Bachelors and widowers were compelled to pay for the privilege of single blessedness. It was William Pitt who instituted the window tax. In the reign of George I. it was necessary to have si license in order to sell hats. Then there was a tax on hair powder and a tax on watches and clocks. In the reign of George 111. :i duty of 2s 7d per 100 was imposed on bricks. At a later period in the same reign bricks were divided, for. the purposes of taxation, into common and dressed bricks, and the duty on each kind of brick was regulated according to its size.