TAXING BACHELORS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3184, 8 May 1909, Page 7

TAXING BACHELORS.

Every now and again one of our debating clubs discuss the question, "Should Bachelors be Taxed?" It was debated with mach vigor, for instance, at Onehunga, th«i other night. Whenever thqre is a gap on the syllabus this subject may safely be put on as calculated to afford a pleasant evening. "Irreclaimable bachelors" are now having a bad time m the State of Maine, where a legislative' Bill has been proposed with the object of taxing ungallant citizens and providing a small pension for old maids with the proceeds. Kansas has bravely taken up the cudgels in behalf of the ladies, and a grand |assault against selfish, unsociable men is being} developed in other progressive States, which will require much bachelor strategy to defeat. In America, it is urged, where divorce is so easy and inexpensive, there is less excuse for celibacy than anywhere else, and yet celibacy, since the money panic in 1907, has become fashionable. Representative Qj#mpbell's Bill, introduced into the • Legislature of the State ot Maine, ; framed on a basis that men who make no reasonable attempt to marry by the time the.v are 30 years old, should help to support the spinsters who have never received a proposal on ' reaching the aj-'e of 40 Mr Campbell proposes to mulct every unmarried man of SO or over »c the rath; of £2 a year, the fund thin Vainer! to be apr.liod to the support and ■ relief of deserving won:en who are ' still -pint-ten;, although willieg to ! marry if they get a fair chant, e. The law hns srnne relief muujurc:; i< r bachelors or widowers who can' .show tint they have mad:: a reasonable effort to gel; a wife by imposing ■ rhree times, either to three different women or to one woman. " treasonable" offers are held to be ruy proposal of matvirnotiv made in good I fai'fh l:.y any man not an inmaie of an | insane asylum, and unconvicted of felony or infamous crime. No benefit exceeding £2O :\ year is to be paid to i\)K spinster, f/lr Campbell haw received assurances of support. New Z..-aland, after all, is not the only country where "experiments" ar<> advocated.