15 APRIL 1916, Page 3

These are reasons of equity. There are reasons of economic

policy equally strong for our suggested scale of abatements. In the case of persons with incomes of from £150 to £300 or £500 a year, if a larger scale of abatement were allowed their incomes would soon cease altogether to be taxable, and this would mean too great a loss to the State. Besides, in the lower categories the present abatements merely on the ground of small income are so large that the case is already covered. When we come to the richer people we reach a category where it is held that no abatement from the maximum sum is required on the ground of smallness of income. In a very large family, however, there is, we hold, good reason for exceptional treatment.