THE DOG TAX.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sre,—Numerous suggestions are being made for an increase a the Dog Tax, and it appears likely that some one or other may be proposed in the next Budget Before that occurs, I think it would be well to ventilate the subject, petty though it may appear to be, and as the Spectator has always been a dog-lover its columns seem natural to the question. There are dogs and dogs. These islands have bred as good breeds of dogs as of men, and if these breeds are to be preserved, I think it would be unhappy that some very heavy penal tax on them should be levied. Some haters of dogs—for there are such folk—propose that the tax be raised • at once to .f.5. Dukes and millionaires and munitioners are not the only people who have dogs, and such a tax would simply mean
the death of many a' brave, cheerful, and admirable little terrier, while the wealthy women who carry Chows, Pekins, Schipperkes, Dachshunds, Pugs, and endless other odoriferous and useless foreign dogs to hotels and restaurants would be left with their abominable pets. Certainly raise the Dog Tax. We need money. But let the native breeds, English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh, pay only a small increase, and let a really high and, if need be, pro- hibitive tax be put upon all foreign dogs. These enormous St. Bernards, Great Danes, and Borzois eat as much as a boy, while the silky-haired ladies' pets have to be fed on cream, chicken, and butcher's meat. I should be glad to see the last of these abominable lapdogs, but I grieve to think of the many courageous little native dogs which would have to be destroyed under a heavy
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