18 JANUARY 1902, Page 14

DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAXATION.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—There can be no equality between direct and indirect taxation (see Spectator of January U tb, p. 39), as every one who pays direct taxes also pays all the indirect taxes. My gardener is a total abstainer, and does not smoke. Till last year, when sugar was taxed, all his contribution to the Exchequer was 5s. or 6s. Tea-duty per annum. As his wages are £1 a week, he paid in taxes a two-hundredth part of his income. My income is R500, and on Income-tax alone

I paid a seventeenth !—I am, Sir, &c., M. A.