Changes in the Incidence of imperial Taxation. By William Habits,
M.P. (William Mullen and Son.)—Mr. Helms states his ease with moderation. It amounts to a demand for the repeal of the teaduty. Taxes on alcoholie.drinks and tobacco being, by almost common consent, put out of tho question, this and a few similar imposts of small import- ance only remain as indirect taxes paid by the working-class. In other words, Mr. Helms demands that, except for tobacco and drink, the working-class should contribute nothing whatever to the national exchequer. Put in that form, his proposition has not an attractive look. The change in the incidence of taxation on which he insists so strongly as an injustice is simply due to the fact that increased consumption by the working-class (for that is doubtless the main cause) has swollen the Customs and Excise from thirteen to twenty millions,•and•that the income-tax has been roduoed from ten millions to about five. Bat the income-tax is our resource for emergencies, and it would be sheer madness to exhaust it without necessity.
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