TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 663 
and is now being placed within reach of immigrants by the extension of railways. 
Elsewhere the sinking of wells has intensified the cultivation, and the introduction 
of additional water supply by means of canals has rendered large areas productive 
which were before sterile. Congestion may be thus staved off for a generation, but 
must come, as the line of increase remains the same. There are, however, signs 
of the beginning of a process of diversion from agriculture to other industries. 
The urban population has recently shown a tendency to increase at a slightly 
higher rate than the rural, and though in the famine-stricken tracts this may be 
in part attributed to the traditional tendency of the field labourer to wander 
towards the doles and labour market of the nearest town, the growth of the 
seaports and manufacturing centres testifies to a real movement away from the 
fields. Whether the movement be permanent or, as in many cases it is known to 
be, merely seasonal, there is no doubt as to the increased advantage which is being 
taken of the openings afforded by the development of new undertakings within 
the last twenty years or even less, and the villager earns away from home more 
than the subsistence he used to himself produce there. The further step of 
emigration for employment out of India and its immediate neighbours is an outlet 
which also shows signs of expansion, but, like the migration to the plantations or 
factories, it is a matter of sentiment and custom, and, once acclimatised, often 
leads to a regular flow out and back. That the returned emigrant’s savings are 
ultimately invested in the purchase of land in his birthplace is a matter that will 
have to be taken into account by the next generation. 
6. Investigations on the Nutrition of Man. By Professor AtTWATER. 
See p. 758. 
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. The Modification of the Income-tax. 
By W. G. 8. Avams. 
The income-tax has become not merely permanent, but the centre rouud 
which our system of taxation is grouped. ‘The case to be considered is not, 
however, that of radical reform, but of modification. ‘The breaking-up of the 
income-tax into an income and a property tax is improbable; but the present 
income-tax is capable of considerable modification along the lines of development 
which it has followed. 
Three questions are to be considered. First, the degressive scale should be 
extended and the graduation made ‘ smooth’ instead of ‘ jolting. A simple 
system of degression affecting incomes up to 1,000/. may be corstructed. It 
should also be considered whether differential rates—such as Pitt and Gladstone 
had recourse to—should not be introduced, applying to (1) incomes below 2502, 
and (2) incomes above 1,000/. 
Second, the normal level of the income-tax is too high. The income-tax must 
be adjusted in relation to modifications required alike in the Succession Duties 
and in our system of indirect taxation. Graduation through the medium of 
indirect taxation can be economically extended further than at present. Necessaries 
must be exempted to a larger extent, and articles of luxury taxed. ‘The British 
system has been falling away from this standpoint. 
Third, the inccme-tax should be extended downwards to all incomes over 1204. 
This is conditional on a reduction of the normal rate and on modifications of our 
system of indirect taxation. The wider extension of the tax through the body of 
the political electorate is of great importance. The position of the industrial 
