THE SUGAR-TAX.
130 THY EDITOR Or TSB " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The article in last Saturday's Spectator gives only one reason in favour of the Sugar-tax,—i.e., that it is a good "drawing tax." The following reasons appear to me equally important and undeniable :—(l) The article is so cheap that the tax is not felt. (2) Nearly all the sugar imported into Great - Britain and Ireland is produced and supplied by foreigners. (3) It is not a tax on the working man alone; the rich man pays his share and all the shares of his household. (4) Except for the taxes on sugar and tea, the teetotaler and non-smoker (two classes which are large and always increasing in number), as well as the highly paid artisan and the skilled labourer, would pay nothing towards the expenses of the country. The tax on sugar reaches every one. (5) Beer and other liquors are heavily taxed. Why should aerated waters be free ? Sugar and tea have both been for a number of years very cheap and low in price. If either of them has a claim for consideration, surely it is the one grown and supplied almost entirely by ourselves in India and Ceylon, and not the one grown and supplied almost entirely by foreigners on the Continent of Europe, and in Java, Peru, &c. We import very little Colonial sugar, because it is received in Canada at a lower rate of duty than foreign sugar. The present tax on sugar works out at an average of about 25 per cent., and on tea it would work out at about 50 per cent. if the duty were reduced by id. per pound. Both articles are well able to bear their
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