(Contributed)
Amongst the sources of revenue to defray Governmental expenditure in China must be reckoned the Jand and grain taxes. Even allowing for squeeze, which is inseparable from any governmental department of this Republic, the revenue should be very large. It would be vastly larger but for the "dead hand" spread all over the surface of China. The habit in China of spreading graves over all cultivable land, thereby putting it out of cultivation, not only deprives the Government of its just revenue from grain tax but deprives a very needy people of its natural sustenance. This indiscriminate plastering of the country with surface graves is known as the "'dead hand," and it is the curse of the country without a single redeeming feature. At the time of making of a grave, the grave is registered and of course the land on which it is placed continues to pay the land tax, but that land goes out of cultivation except for the propagation of undesirable weeds, and ceases to produce the grain required for the food of the people as well as for taxation purposes. These graves then become a double loss to the state.
Surface graves should be taxed double the amount that the area would have yielded if under cultivation, while graves without any surface indication other than a commemoration stone should only be charged the usual registration fee. If this were done China would very soon follow the example of Western peoples and have definite burial grounds for the town, village or hamlet where two or more persons would be buried in one grave and not occupy the unnecessary amount of ground they do through being spread indiscriminately about the surface.
If Young China concentrated on the reform of its burial places it would be doing far more good for its country than it is with its parrot cries of sovereign rights and boycott. By neglecting this important grave problem Young China is neglecting one of the essential for maintaining the future Young China which it may be presupposed to bring into ultimate existence.
In the Foreign Settlements we might make a start and show Young China a very needed example by having a register at a very nominal fee of all graves worked on a basis of area occupied. The family registered as responsible for the graves should then be compelled, subject to fines, to keep the graves in good order, free from weeds and all kinds of garbage. Such a step would go a long way to remove the dead hand" from the Settlements and initiate that respect amongst Young China for departed an-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.