IRISH REPUBLICANS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 March 1925, Page 5

IRISH REPUBLICANS.

DAMAGE TO COUNTRY. ESTIMATED AT £50.000,000. Newspapers received from Ireland by recent mails show that within the past few' months there have been a number of deputations to the President of the Irish Free State (Mr Cosgrove) asking for a reduction in taxation on the grounds that the present ruinous taxation in Ireland is preventing the development of the commercial and industrial resources of the Irish Free State. President Cosgrove, in his replies to the different deputations, expressed svmpathy with their desires, but pointed out again and again that until Ire--1 land got rid of the reparation claims in respect of damage to .business and _property, and the wanton destruction done by the Irish Republican followers of Mr de Valera, there would be no possibility of any big reduction in the ordinary taxation. The amounts payable for the destruction wrought by the Irish Republican rebels is variously estimated at from £30,000,000 to £70,000,000, hut it is considered that a conservative estimate of the amounts that will have to be met by the local government bodies and the Free State Government under the head of reparations will be about £50,000,000. In the Irish Free State Budget of the last financial year there was - an amount of £7,000,000 under the head of reparations, and for the present financial year the amount in. the Irish Free State Budget under the same head is £8,000,000. The Irish Courts are still busily engaged in investigating the claims of persons who have lost their business and property through the ravages of the Irish Republican irregulars, and it is anticipated that the amount that will have to he provided by the Trish Free State Government for reparations in the coming annual budget will be about £10.000,000.