LAND OF TINY TAXES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18990, 11 October 1923, Page 5

LAND OF TINY TAXES.

FORTUNATE ISLE OF MAN* PAWNBROKING FORBIDDEN. THE DEEMSTER’S OATH. In the_ height of the holiday season arxHt) 20,000 visitors arrive daily at Douglas, in the Isle of Man, and an equal number tab* their departure. The greatest number of arrivals and departures on any one day (50,975) was on August 9. 1913. Income tax was levied for the first time in the island in 1918. The present standard rate is Is 6d in the pound. Residents are not assessable for English income tax on foreign investments. Old-age pensions are granted on the same conditions as in England, but similar pensions can be claimed by persons of 50 and over on proof that they have been incapacitated for at least 12 months, and have an income of less than £26 a year. A tax of 3d per head is levied on every person landed on the island. It is paid by tno steamship companies, and produces £11,500 a year. me Manx National Debt on March 31 last was only £28.657, or about 11s 6d pep head of the population. All members of the House of Keys (the Manx House of Commons) who do not hold office receive £SO a year, plus travelling expenses. Pawnbroking and bills of sale on furniture are illegal, and since 1691 a bank, firm, or per.-on has been prohibited from charging more than 6 per cent, on a loan on pain of a penalty equal to three times the amount! of the principal. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. Imprisonment for debt survives in the island. If a man attempts to leave it before he has paid his debts, he can be arrested without a warrant as he is going on a boat. While, too, in England only hotelkeeper* can legally detain a defaulting guest’s luggage, anybody letting lodgings in the island . has that right. I nder an Act passed in 1905, the Isle of Alan Highway Board has power to close the roads of the island for six days a year for motor racing. On July 5 every year all laws passed during the previous 12 months are promulgated in Manx and English from Tynwald Hill, which, it is said, is formed of_ earth taken from each of the 17 parishes in tha island. This ceremony has been carried out regularly for more than 700 years. THE DEEMSTER’S OATH. The Deemster, whose duties range from trying debt cases above £2 to taking part in the deliberations of the Manx House -of Lords and the Manx Cabinet, takes the following curious oath of office; — ”Bv this Book, and by the holy contents thereof, and by the wonderful works which God hath miraculously wrought in heaven above and earth beneath in six days and I seven nights, I, , do swear that L will, without respect or favour, or friendship, love, or gain, consanguinity or affinity, envy I or malice, execute the laws of this side justly ' between party and party as indifferently as the herring backbone doth lie in tne midst of the fish. So help me God and the contents of this Book.” Traditionally, the first Derby was run on a spot known as the Racecourse, near Derbyhaven. The island formerly belonged to the Stanleys, having in 1413 been granted byHenry IV to Sir John Stanley and his heirs for ever. Ultimately it was bought back by the British Government from the Dukea of Aiholl, who had inherited it from tha Derby family. . The island pays £IO,OOO a year to England, not for protection, but as interest on £250 000, about one-half the amount paid to the Atholls by the British Government for the island.