THE MILE SERVANT TAX.
(To Tan EDITOR Or Tar " SPEOTAT0R."1
Sin,—Might not the Male Servant Licence have been with advantage largely increased under the Budget—say from 15s. to £2? Such an increase would have brought in some addi- tional revenue either to the central or local authority, but, better still, it would have tended to discourage the employ- ment of men either as indoor servants or as flower-gardeners or in other unproductive employments. When every able- bodied man is needed for the service of his country, either in the Army, the factory, or the farm, it seems a sin to employ such men, of whatever age, either waiting at table, clipping garden hedges, or cutting the grass on the lawn. In a seaside town well known to me dozens of men well fitted to be doing farm work were busy with the shears and lawn-mower during harvest time, whilst in the country close by two men had often to be doing the work of four in carrying corn. Increase the tax, and make it include the jobbing gardener, and you will send more men to the factories and the farms instead of letting them waste their time in making things look neat and pretty for the rich and well-to.do. And with more men on the land it might be possible to break up those poor grass-lands for wheat, as certain wise men rather aggravate the farmer by telling him he ought to do at a time when he hardly knows how to work the tillage he has for lack of men and horses.—I am,
13.S.—A farmer in my parish is seeding down more laud than usual this year because of the lack of labour, and yet the recruiting sergeant called, this afternoon to ask my help in sending more men away !
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