[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPIICTLINA."1 SIR,—Can you find
room in the Spectator for a reference to the letter of your correspondent Mr. A. B. Browne in last week's issue ? He brings forward the case of an artisan earning El a week (with a wife, son, and daughter) who pays in indirect taxes about 9d. per week, or something like 22 per annum. As the education of the aforesaid son and daughter will cost the taxpayers at least 25 a year (to say nothing of further expense to the ratepayers), the artisan is really paying to the State 4 per cent. on his earnings, and is receiving 10 per cent. from the public purse. Moreover, if he and his wife reach the age of seventy, they will become entitled to the sum of 226 per annum, which will amount to receiving 50 per cent. on the weekly earnings of his life. As the taxation of this particular class appears to return to those who pay it, they cannot be said to contribute anything to the upkeep of the Army, the Navy, or the Civil Service, for which their more capable and more heavily taxed fellow-citizens have to find
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