Not long ago a reader described how in importing a Tientsin carpet to Shanghai he had, had to pay a variety of taxes in' Tientsin and tore here, aggregating in all about $641. Two more instances of the Teally monstrous weight of taxation nowadays have Intely come to our notice. One of our readers was asked by @ friend in Hongkong to get him some silk socks from Chefoo. He did #0. The socks had to pay a variety of taxes on leaving Chefoo, a further tax on coming into Shanghai, and yet another tax on leaving Shanghai for Hongkong. In the other instance a reader imported from Nanking. an object of art (made locally) and sent it to Paomachang, a suburb of Peking. We are not sure whether it had to vay on leaving Nanking, but it had to pay a tax on leaving Shanghi sure enough, another one on entering Tientsin, an octroi tax on going into Peking, and another tax" leaving that city for Paomachang. Be it observed that in none of these eases are foreign goods concerned, They were Chinese products, the outcome of native industry, which government officials would pré- sumably wish to encourage. Onl part of the taxation was nati the rest being local imposts, tion tax, police tax, anything that would serve as a protest for money-getting. How are China's indus tries to compete in world' markets when they are thus weighed down with taxes?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.