LAND OF TINY TAXES.

Shannon News, 12 October 1923, Page 1

LAND OF TINY TAXES.

FORTUNATE ISLE OF MAN

THE DEEMSTER’S OATH.

In. the height of the holiday season, about 20,000 visitors arrive daily at Douglas, in th e Isle of 'Man, and an equal number take their departure. The greatest number of arrivals and departures on any one (50,975) was on August 9, 1913. Income tax was levied for the first, time in the island in 1918. The prosent standard rate is 1/6 in the £. 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 £2 6 a year.

A tax of 3d per head is levied on every person landed on the island. It is paid by the steamship companies, and produces £11,500 a year. The Manx National Debt on March 31 /last was only £28,657, or about 11/6 pei’-head of the population. All members of th© 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 ar© illegal, and since 1691 a bank, firm, or person has been prohibited from charging more than six per cent, on a loan' on pain of a penalty equal to three times the amount of the principal. ' 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 hotel keepers can legally detain a defaulting guest’s luggage, anybody letting lodgings in the •island has that right. Under an act passed in 1905, the Isle of Man 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 p'arishes-in the island. This ceremony has been carried out regularly for more than 700 years. The Deemster, whose duties range from trying debt 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:—

“By 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 seven nights, I, , do swear that I will, without respect or favour, or friendship, love, or gain, ..consanguinity or affinity, envy, or malice, execute the laws of this side justly between party ands party as indifferently as the herring backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish. So help me God and the contents of this Book.”

Traditionally, the first Derby wa» run on a spot known as the Racecourse, near Derbyhaven. The island formerly belonged to the Stanleys, having in 1413 been granted by Henry IV. to Sir John Stanley and his heirs for ever. Ultimately it was bought back by the'British Government from the Dukes of Atholl, who had inherited it from the Derby family. tfhe 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 Atholla by the British Government for the island.