CURIOSITIES OF TAXATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9119, 19 June 1908, Page 4

CURIOSITIES OF TAXATION.

The introduction of old age pensions j proposals at Home, and the consequent raising of the question where the money is to come from, has led a writer in the London "Daily Mail" to dive into the history of taxation, and produce a number of instances of the devices to which Chancellors of the Exchequer have been driven to raise money. There seems to be a suggestion that Mr Lloyd-George may have to resort to similar taxes. Pitt thought he would raise £200,000 by taxing hair-powder, fashion being then inexorable in enforcing the wearing of hair powdered, and in a queue. The Whigs decided to retaliate by abandoning the use of powder, and a number of noblemen met and sorrowfully cut off their queues, the result being that long hair went out of fashion. That raising a tax too high means evasion was shown by the fact that when the dog tax in England was l'<!s, the number of dogs on the roals and in the parks became so great that there was something like a panic, and the tax had to be reduced. Probably the worst taxes ever imposed were those on paper and on windows. The effect of the paper taxes in retarding progress was immense, for the paper duty was as high as £2B a ton. The window tax lived until 1851, at which time the average number of windows in English houses was only aix. To tax bachelors is a common proposal today, but it is not new, for at the end of the eighteenth century these misguided people had to pay taxes ranging from £l2 lis to one shilling, according to their position. Watches and clocks used to be taxed —10s for a gold watch and 5s for a clock. Hats were taxed once, and had to bear a revenue stamp, bo wpre gloves, mittens, almanacs, perfumes, toothpowder, and all sorts of toilet articles, glass, stone bottles, and bricks.