1170 REPORT—1885. 
what they sent us, depriving our exchequer of an enormous source of revenue 
which would tend to greatly lessen our imperial taxation. 
The outcome of such a policy as Britain is at present following must ultimately 
disable her from supporting her present population, without which she cannot long 
maintain her independence, and with the loss of it, at no distant date, must follow 
all the privileges and advantages which accompany and flow from nationality and 
empire. 
5. On the Incidence of Imperial Taxation. By Dr. W. A. Hunter. 
The object of the paper, the author said, was to determine with as close an 
approximation to accuracy as our information admitted in what manner the burden 
of Imperial taxation was borne by the richer and the poorer classes of the com- 
munity. The gross income for the year ending March 1882—the census year— 
was, in round numbers, 80 millions, of which 10 millions were receipts not in 
the nature of taxation, The remaining 70 millions consisted of a sum of 434 
millions raised from tea, coffee, tobacco, and spirits, forming a burden on all classes 
of the community. It was, of course, true that a poor man who consumed none of 
these articles almost entirely escaped any share of this burden ; but the same remark 
was equally true if he was a rich man. The balance of 263 millions was raised by 
taxes that fell upon a limited class, which was nearly, but not altogether, co-ex- 
tensive with the class of persons liable to pay income-tax. These taxes compre- 
hended income-tax, house duty, some of the excise licences, railway duties, death 
duties, stamps, and wines. Some of these taxes fell to a certain extent also 
upon incomes under 150/. a year, so that the sum he had stated at least somewhat 
exaggerated the amount of the contribution made by the well-to-do classes ; but, 
in order to weight the scales as much in favour of the rich as possible, he credited 
them with the whole of the taxation. The class represented by the income-tax 
payers amounted to six millions of people, and the rest of the population to 29 
millions. The gross income of the former class he estimated at 650 millions. It 
must be remembered, however, that in the Inland Revenue returns a great many 
under estimates occurred which eluded the vigilance of tax-gathers, this being 
especially the case as regarded foreign securities. But taxation ought not to be 
based on the gross income. The deduction allowed by the Income Tax Commis- 
sioners of 120/. a year on incomes under 4007. was excessive. Mr. Giffen estimated 
121. per head as the reasonable sum that ought to be deducted before one could 
fairly assess the taxable income, He was not prepared to say that 12/. was ex- 
cessive, but he proposed to put it at the somewhat lower figure of 107. This would 
give a total of G0 millions to deduct from the 650 millions, or a total taxable income 
of 590 millions. The total sum paid in taxation by this class, including their share 
of indirect taxation, was 34 millions, which, on 590 millions, amounted to 5/. 15s. 
3d. per cent. It is not easy, Dr. Hunter went on to say, to ascertain the aggregate 
income of the 29 millions of people whose income does not bring them within 
Schedule D. ‘T'wo estimates have been made—one by Mr. Giffen, the other by 
Professor Leone Levi—of the gross earnings of the working class, a class that 
corresponds very nearly to the 29 millions. Mr. Levi puts the total at 520 millions ; 
Mr. Giffen at 620 millions—an enormous discrepancy. Mr. Giffen’s figures would 
give an average of 217. 10s. per head, or more than 100 guineas for every group of 
five persons. Such an estimate is hardly consistent with the experience of those 
who are acquainted with the condition of the working classes. I have endeavoured 
to test those figures, and have obtained a return of the wages under 1501. a year 
from the Northern Co-operative Company, paid under the following departments : 
—grocery, bakery, clothiery, butchery, boot and shoe, meal mill, coal, stable, 
watching and lighting, and counting-houses. The proportion of men employed is 
somewhat higher than the average ; the proportion of women less, and that of boys 
and girls greater than the average. Although in some occupations men may earn 
higher wages than those employed at the co-operative stores, yet, having regard to 
the lower wages paid in rural districts and to the poverty of Ireland, there can be 
no doubt that the earnings of the employés exceed the ayerage of the whole country, 
PD is 
