[To TUB EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sne,—I am glad
to find you giving your valuable support to the plea for abatement in respect of children irrespective of the total amount of a man's income. Fathers of large families, particularly those who have just passed the £500 income limit, will feel grateful to you for your advocacy. The present scale is especially hard on the latter, for not only does their rate of tax automatically increase, but they lose the abatement of £25 in respect of each child. The loss is too severe, the jump too steep. The professional man generally wishes to give his children a, good education, and in these times of high prices he has a very anxious time of it. Your estimate of the probable annual cost of maintenance of each child is a very moderate one, but in any ease it will doubtless be agreed that the father of a family is deserving of more consideration than he at present receives from the State in this
matter. There is a vast difference between the ability of the bachelor sr the childless married man to bear taxation and that of the father of a large family, and yet where the income exceeds £500 that difference is
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