The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-17 00:00:00

FINANCIAL REFORM ASSOCIATION..

We subjoin a sketch of recent discussions at the
weekly meeting of the conncil of this body, which now
takes place, as our readers are probably aware, on
Thursday, instead of Saturday afternoon as heretofore.

THE INCOME AND PROPERTY TAX.
The attention of the council was called to an article in
the Atlas newspaper, showing the necessity of devising
measures to check fraudulent evasions of this tax
through false returns, by means of which dishonest per-
sons avoid paying their fair proportion of the public
burdens, and throw the share of it, which they evade,
upon the shoulders of their more conscientious neigh-
bours. It was remarked, that there was another part of
the subject to which the Atlas did not advert, viz , the
almost innumerable instances in which lodgers and other
persons, having no settled domicile or place of business,
are never called upon to make any return at all ; and it
was suggested as highly probable that, if all persons
liable, were made to pay, and paid fairly, the tax would
be twice as productive as it is. The article in question,
was prepared by Mr. Henry Lloyd Morgan, from Blue
Book No. 354, Session 1852. From this table, it appears
that six persons who returned their incomes as nil, were
assessed respectively at £2,000, £l,lOO, £l,OOO, £7OO,
£5OO, £3OO, and all of them paid on those amounts
without appeal, excepting one, whose assessment was
confirmed. Four others, who returned their incomes as
£5OO, £5,300, £2,000, and £5,110, were assessed at just
double those amounts, and paid on them without appeal.
One person, the number of whose assessment is stated to
be 417, was modest enough to state his income at £5OO,
was assessed at £15,000, and paid on £14,000 ; another re-
turned £15,000, was assessed at £30,000, and paid on that
amount—great stress was laid on the danger to be ap-
prehended, if the impression that there is any unfairness
in the levying of the impost becomes general.
And it was considered very deplorable that her Majesty's
ministers, with the single exception of Sir George Grey,
should have set so bad an exariiple to the people in seek-
ing fo evade pai;;;:fpt of the stamp duty of about £2OO
each, by negleeiing to take oiLt the customary patents on
their appointments to office. The preside^t urged the
importance of making the property tax fair, Z."l
universal ; and also of endeavouring to remove popular
prejudice against it, by showing that it is only through
such a tax that the rich can be reached, and made to
contribute fairly according to their means. He also
alluded to the difficulty which very many persons, hon-
estly disposed, experienced in filling up the printed
forms for returns in their present shape, and the neces-
sity of taking means to procure proper returns from all
persons, so that neither lodgers nor any other indivi-
duals fairly liable should be enabled to avoid the tax
Another member stated that he knew a wealthy man in
this town who had never filled up one of the papers sent
to him, from first to last, but left the commissioners to
find out his income as they best could. They assessed
him ; and he always paid on their assessment, which he
certainly would not have done had they gone at all
beyond the mark. It was suggested by another member
that the object which all honest men must desire would
never be obtained until the rendering of wilfully false
returns was made a felony, or misdemeanour, punishable
with fine and imprisonment.

HOW PUBLIC SERVANTS EMPLOY THEMSELVES,

The Caledonian Mercury has announced that a curious
collection of official letters, consisting of correspondence '
between a Secretary in the Customs' Department and the
Editor of a London newspaper, has fallen into its posses-
sion, and promises to make the whole of it public. The
following extract from one of the letters of the official is
given as a sample of the way in which paid servants of
the public employ their time :—" I have been so busy
since I had your note that I have had no time to reply
till now, having had to write a long leader in reply
to the Daily News, besides three superannuation
ones, also a little one." On this the editor (Mr. William
Dawning Bruce, founder of the Civil Service Gazette),
remarks :—" Comments on such conduct would be
superfluous. Here will be a fine case for Mr. Robertson
Gladstone and the Liverpool Financial Reformers." The
president expressed his conviction that private indivi-
duals could he found who would undertake to do all the
business of the civil service at less than half its pre-
sent cost, giving security for its performance, and doing
it much better than at present. As a specimen of
official hours and industry, he stated, that when in Lon-
don, lately, he met a young man formerly in his employ,
but who has now a situation in the Statistical Depart-
ment of the Board of Trade. Entering into conversa
tion with this person, lie was informed that the office
hours were from about eleven o'clock in the morning
till four in the afternoon, and that for this service the
youth had a salary of £3OO, which he thought rather
low. Another member mentioned, as a fact within his
own knowledge, that in a certain public office, the
clerks protested vehemently against the conduct of one
of their number, who had actually written six letters in
one day, telling him it would never do to begin working
in that way.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

In reference to a passsage in Mr. Roebuck's recent
speech at Sheffield, the president and other members
spoke of the immense good that might, and would be
done, by only forty members, banded together to support
good measures and oppose bad ones, and pledged always
to be in attendance to make a house, and prevent
its being counted out, whenever ministerial tactics ren-
dered either expedient desirable, for the purpose of
evading unpleasant discussions, or getting rid of un-
palateable measures.