VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933
149
"When the time for collecting the land tax comes round, the Magistrate shall have triplicate slips prepared beforehand, containing the names of every taxpayer arranged by Hundreds and Tithings, and the amount payable by each. One set of these slips is intended for receipts to be issued to the tax-payers, another set is for the use of the person charged with the collection in each Hundred, and the third is to be deposited in the Magistrate's office in order to check the returns. As each payment is made the slip is filled up and given to the payer as a receipt. The slips still remaining should show at once the persons that had not paid, who should be proceeded against by the Authorities. If there appeared to be any discrepancy between the slips and the amount actually received, the fact would show some malpractice on the part of the clerks, and the matter should then be strictly enquired into and the parties punished.”1
In some cases the Ti-pao himself is charged with collecting the taxes; in others he is merely the informer to the magistrate's runners, indicating who owns what property. When the actual amount of tax is being settled with the land owners, or through the agency of the elders, the Ti-pao may haggle either for or against the officials of the government. Bazin is of the opinion that on the whole collection of taxes in the village is accomplished very efficiently.2
Because of his duty of knowing the exact owner of every bit of land against the time of tax payment, the further duty falls upon the Ti-pao of registering all sales. In the transaction there will be two writs drawn up, one of the sale in which the seller obliges himself to hand over the property; the other of purchase, in which the buyer obliges himself to pay. There is always a guarantor, or middle-man, called Pao-jen (4A) or Tan-pao (1),3 The bills of sale and of purchase must indicate the name, surname, profession and residence of the buyer or seller; the location of the property with its boundaries and particulars about it; the taxes to the land; its price, manner of payment and other stipulations; and the name, surname, profession and residence of the guarantor.4
1 Ta Ch'ing Li Li (Division of Hu Pu) sec. 90. Li, Translated by Jamieson; op. cit., p. 77. Also translated in part, and Chinese text given by Boulais; op. cit., p. 217.
2 Bazin; op. cit. II p. 275.
3 Ibid., p. 281. Jamieson op. cit., p. 97 states that sometimes there may be as many as ten middle men in such a transaction,
4 Bazin; op. cit., II p. 282.
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