HOME RULE FINANCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1139, 29 May 1911, Page 4

HOME RULE FINANCE.

It is reported to-day that a sensation has been caused by the publication of a letter in which Me. Redmond dissociates himself beforehand from the findings of the Committee that the British Government has appointed to inquire into the financial relations of England and Ireland. According to this report, which we may for the present assume to be correct, Me. Redmond went on to say that he stands upon the report of the Childers Commission and reserves absolute liberty of action to his party during the trying and critical times ahead. It need hardly be pointed out that if Me. Redmond takes up this position he will violate the many professions of fairness and just intentions which he has made during the past year. Assailed by the Unionists for making an improper bargain with the Nationalists, Mr. Asquith repeatedly repelled the accusation, and did his ut-. most to persuade the public that there_ was no bargain, no surrender on his side, and no coercion on the part of Mr. Redmond. The Irish leader was represented, and has been zealous in representing himself, as desirous only of a fair settlement, and exceedingly eager to come to any working agreement. It would now appear that, feeling himself powerful enough to force the Government to obey his orders, ho cannot realise why his possession of the balance of power in the House should be.left unexercised whenever anything is to be gained by it. Unless.he can repudiate the letter to which publicity is now given— and we think everybody will hope that he can do so —a very bad impression will bo made upon the people of England. They will see, if they never saw it before, the force of Mr. Gladstone's famous and oft-repeat- , ed . declaration • that ■ Home Rule should not bs granted,. would, indeed, be a perilous enterprise for Britain and even for the Empire, by a Govcrnmant that the Nationalists had it 111 their power to turn out of office. Me. Gladstone . saw that a Government in such a position would be .liable, or.certain, to bo driven by the dominant minority at every point, and would be practically certain tc frame a measure that would be either ■ flagrantly inequitable or else hopelessly unworkable.

It is pretty'certain that a great section of British Liberal opinion will disapprove of any dealings between tho Government and a party that refuses to act up to its promise, express and implied, of reasonableness and justice. Should Mr. Redmond's attitude be correctly reported, and should he adhere to it, there is very little doubt that he will bring destruction to the Government, and set back the cause he has at heart. It may be worth while recalling some of the essential facts of Anglo-Irish finance. A common belief is that Ireland has always boen grossly over-taxed, and that the establishment of Home Rule would afford her a great financial _ relief. There is no foundation for either of these ideas. In the first place no tax is levied in Ireland which is not levied in Great Britain at the same rates. There are, however, taxes levied in Britain from which Irishmen are exempt. No Irishman can pay more in taxation than an Englishman who is financially on a par with him; on the contrary, he may pay much less than' he would were he living on the same financial scale in England. For a good many years now Ireland has received more from the Imperial Exchequer than she has paid into it. In the annual return "Revenue and Expenditure (England, Scotland, and Ireland), the position for the year 1909-10 was thus summarised: England and Wales—Bevonue contributed to Imperial purposes in excess of local expenditure .£56,838,500 Scotland- Do. Do 6,687,500 Ireland—Local expenditure in excess of revenue contributed 2,357,500 If strictly business principles were to govern the settlement.of the financial part of Home Rule, the burden on Ireland would be greatly increased. In his Home Rule Bill of 1893 Mr. Gladstone proposed that Ireland should contribute a sum, estimated by Sin Henry Fowler at £2,276,000 a year for Imperial purposes. To-day, the sum would amount to about £3,000,000 a year. Now, the huge settlement scheme under the Land Purchase Act is costing the Imperial Exchequer, owing to the credit of Britain being behind the scheme, a much smaller sum than if the credit were less good. It can hardly be disputed that if Ireland took over the scheme, the extra cost of financing it, Britain's unparalleled credit having been exchanged for a credit far less good, would amount to a large sum. Even one per cent, on the Irish Land Stock would mean an extra million a year in the immediate future. Financial independence on strictly business lines would therefore mean that the first Irish Government would be faced with the task of finding an extra £0,000,000 a year in taxation, this being the sum of the lost bonus from Britain added to the Imperial charge and tho extra cost of the land purchase scheme. It is unlikely that many people would insist on a rigid financial settlement like that. But nothing is more likely to chill the sympathy of "the predominant partner"'than anything savouring of intolerance or bad taithor coercion on the part of the Nationalists.