The duty next in importance is that which is charged on
advertisements. Our belief is, that a relief from this taxation would
be a prodigious advantage to all departments of trade and commerce, as
well as to various social interests. That the sum of eighteenpence
should be exacted by the state from every person--a poor housemaid,
for example--on advertising for a situation, is, to say the least of
it, inexpressibly shabby. The stamp-duty of one penny on each
newspaper is reckoned to be the third of these taxes on knowledge.
There can be no doubt that this duty is a tax, as applied to those
newspapers which circulate in a locality without going through the
post-office; but, as matters stand, we are inclined to think that much
the larger proportion of newspapers, metropolitan and provincial,
actually are posted, either by the publishers, or by parties sending
their copies to be read at second-hand. It is not quite clear that the
remission of the stamp-duty would be an entire gain; for a postage of
a penny in sending to second, third, and fourth readers--each fresh
hand requiring to adhibit a fresh postage label--might come to a very
much more severe tax than the existing stamp. Much, however, can be
said on both sides; and we desire to let each party state its own
case.
The _British Quarterly Review_, in an able article on the Newspaper
Stamp and its proposed abolition, argues for that measure on one
particular ground--namely, its certain result in allowing of the
existence of small local papers.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57