5 APRIL 1919, Page 3

Of course the general reform of the Income Tax will

wait upon the Report of the Royal Commission. It would not be at all . surprising, however, if Dir. Chamberlain so far forestalled the recommendations of the Commission as to put a special tax on bachelors in his Budget. The married man who brings up and carefully educates a family—doing what he- is continually told is his duty to the State—is specially taxed all along the line for his good citizenship, while the bachelor escapes. High taxation kills children. The abatement allowed to Income Tax payers who are educating children ought to be a general abatement, not allowed only to men and women with small incomes, but to the professional man whose children are on the whole likely to become the most useful members of the community.