TAX ON THINGS OF THE MIND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 11 September 1937, Page 7

TAX ON THINGS OF THE MIND

VIEWS OF MR, A. P. HERBERT “Whatever we may say about this entertainment or that, the entertainment tax is a tax upon tilings of the mind. It is a lax upon the free communication of thought, ideas and knowledge, and to a very large extent and in a very true sense it is a tax upon education,’’ said Mr A. P. Herbert, M.P., in the • debate on tlie Finance. Bill in the House iof Commons, in trying (in vain) to perjsiiade the Chancellor of the Exchequer to j promise to abolish the entertainment tax next year. “It is very difficult indeed to distinguish this tax from the old taxes on knowledge, as they were called, which were abolished, alter a protracted and hitter struggle, only as long ago as (ho lfiso's and the 1860’s. It was in about 1850 that there ceased to be a tax upon every newspaper and every pamph-' let that was published, and a tax upon advertisements, the chief sourcQ.-o'f revenue of newspapers, and upon paper, their raw material. Those (ayeS were rightly j called taxes upon knowledge. Il is safe jlo say that if anybody proposed to reI impose a tax of that sort at this stage, [for instance, a tax upon bonks, say, 20 i per cent, on I lie price of a 7s 6d novel, making a total price of 9s,’’ he added, j"I think, that tax would bo regarded as monstrous and barbarous. Vet it is dif- ! lii-ult to find any argument for placing j luxes upon concerts, music, drama, and • art. ’Lhis is a bad tax because in selectI nig entertainments it makes no allowance j whatever for fhe element of mind or culture.”