CONSCIENCE MONEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19364, 22 July 1925, Page 3

CONSCIENCE MONEY

TREASURY WINDFALLS. “WHEN REMORSE GNAWS.” “If all men had consciences tender enough to make them pay to the national account what was morally owing for British income-tax, excess profits tax, license duty, and so on, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would receive such a huge sum of money that his task would be very easy.” So a Treasury official stated recently, when the Budget problems were under discussion. Peoples are mistaken in thinking that the sums acknowledged in the newspapers by the Chancellor from time to time as “conscience money” from A.B.C. or X.Y.Z. have been reluctantly wrung from defaulters by a threat of prosecution. If such were the case no acknowledgment would be necessary. No; these amounts are sent anonymously and spontaneously by people whose consciences have pricked them. Tn the aggregate they form a steady but not very large addition to the annual revenue. The remittances are sometimes accompanied by interesting letters. One last year came from a poor widow', enclosing Is 9d. She explained that during the war she stole a tin of condensed milk from an Army canteen, and the matter had lain upon her conscience ever since. A more humorous note was struck by the man who wrote: —“I once defrauded you of £5. Remorse gnaws at my conscience. I am sending you ss. When remorse gnaws again I will send you some more.”