15 MAY 1909, Page 16

TAXATION OF "UNGOTTEN MINERALS."--A SUGGESTION.

[To rue EDITOR Or TUN "SPICTATOR.1 new source of revenue having been discovered in " ungotten minerals," might we not with advantage extend the principle to other similar subjects P May we not, for example, proceed from " ungotten minerals" to "unwritten books" P It has been said that in the mind of every man there lies dormant at least one book. Now, Sir, I suggest that the lazy rascals who refuse to put pen to paper to produce their books be stimulated by means of a small tax towards disgorging this enormous amount of potential wealth which meantime they selfishly withhold from the community. Books, as you, Sir, no doubt are aware, have a monopoly value conferred upon them by the Copyright Law, which gives protection for forty-two years. It is therefore possible for us to arrive at an approximate valuation of unwritten books. Some of these would, of course, be worth more than others; but, not to be beyond the mark, we may safely average the whole at £1 per annum of the monopoly period. That is, at forty-two years' purchase, £4.2 per book. There are some ten million adult men and women in this country, so that we arrive at the handsome figure of four hundred and twenty millions sterling as the capital value of the unwritten books of the community, It is true that a certain number of persons have actually written and published books, but that number is a trifling proportion of the whole, and as we may safely calculate that practically every existing author has within him at least one unwritten volume in addition to those he may have written, no deduction need be made from the above figure in reckoning out the total taxable value. A tax of a mere five per cent. on this great unde- veloped wealth would yield twenty-one millions per annum, and if we added to this a small tax on authors' royalties—in. order that written books may also contribute a reasonable amount to the expenses of the country—we should secure a' revenue from this at present entirely untaxed source of wealth and national income almost sufficient to defray the cost of the Navy. We should then have the proceeds of our other imposts available for the much-needed social legislation.—