A TAX ON BACHELORS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—How black an injustice appears to be when it touches oneself ! I think that many women readers of the Spectator would have felt more sympathy towards "Lever de Rideau " if he had specifically included the bachelor woman amongst the "people who are childless," and who are imposed upon in matters financial for the benefit of others "more fortunate than themselves." What of the body of women teachers in public schools ? They are not, it is true, directly taxed, but their salaries are definitely kept down in order that the lion's share of the money available may go to men teachers, pre- sumably to enable them to marry and bring up families. In common with your correspondent, the majority of these women teachers have dependants; like him they pay Income Tax without any abatement; but how much worse is their case in that they have to manage on a woman's salary while he enjoys that of a (potentially) married man. Ti) tax bachelors is, for one thing, to shift from the shoulders of the underpaid spinster to those of the better-paid man some of the burden of rearing other people's children.—I am, Sir. &c.,
Girls' County School, Bishop Auckland.
ALEX A NDR A F ISH ER.
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