104 THE RURAL PROBLEM 



the tax might be remitted on the first hundred head of game 

 shot. 



There is no objection to such a tax on the score of its 

 burden. The people who shoot can quite well afford to pay, 

 and if it is sought to tax luxuries a Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer could find no fairer prey. But there is a very 

 serious theoretical objection to the multiplication of indirect 

 taxes. However heavy the tax on game-preserving, it 

 would produce a small sum at best, it. would not affect to 

 any extent the amount of game-preserving, and could only 

 slightly alter the -personnel of the game-preservers. The 

 sound tax is the direct tax on income, which should be more 

 heavily graduated ; and if the super-tax were considerably 

 increased it would fall on the same people as a game tax, 

 and a good many more of the same kidney besides. Mean- 

 while the evils of game-preserving should be dealt with not 

 indirectly by taxation, but directly by giving to the local 

 authority the power to put a stop to them.* 



* It has been suggested that the local authority should have 

 power to suspend the Game Laws. This is, of course, impossible. 

 You cannot have criminal law different in different districts ; they 

 must be abolished everywhere or nowhere. 



