Overtaxation of Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 25, 21 June 1906, Page 30

Overtaxation of Ireland

During the discussion on the Budget in the. House of Commons Mr. John Redmond seized the opportunity of raising the goiestion of the over-taxation of Ireland. The provision^ proposed by Mr. Gladstone in-his Homo Rule Bill (said Mr, Retimond) were^considered bfr the se who had considered the subject so unsatisfactory; that a Royal Ctommisflion was "appointed for the purpose of investigating the^ whole subject. It was provided by the Act of Union that Ireland was to contribute to Imperial expenditure only in proportion to her resources. This Commission was appointed for the purpose of investigating) the question ared sceihg whether IreUaiM's contributions had been in strict proportion to her relative taxable capacity. That Commission, after a long and laborious investigation, reported that in the year ending March 31, 1893-4, which was the standard year of investigation, Ireland had been overtaxed to the extent of 2$ millions. The finding of the Commission was accepted by the Liberal Parliament in the main, -and the present Chancellor of the Exchequer voted in favor of a resolution adopting the report in 1893. Some of the ablest members! of the Conservative party supportedrthe findings of the Commission, and Irish opinion was unani-" mous in the same direction. Colonel Saunderscn supported the motion. Even the Conservative Government did not oppose an absolute contradiction of their view. What they said was they were not satisfied that the:investigation had been full and complete ; that there were other aspects of the question which the Commission had not inquired into, and they suggested the appointment of a further Commission to complete the inquiry. They remained ten years in office, and never appointed a further Commission. Therefore they were in the same position to-day, and he thought he was entitled to ascertain that the finding of the Royal Commission held the field.

Since life report of that Commission the population of Ireland had diminished by a Quarter of a million. but the taxation of Ireland- for the year 1893-4 was 7£ millions A -whereas the taxation to-day, after the population had gone down a quarter, of .a million, was io£ millions. Three millions a- year had been added to- the taxation of Ireland, although the population had decreased by a Quarter of a million: This 'had fallen on all classes of the population in Ireland, and it had fallen in a special manner on the poorest of the poor. One of the things that English statesmen had reason to be prowl of was the fact that successive Chancellors of the ExcheQwer had aimed at equalising the direct and indiretet taxation of the country, and he "believed it was a fact that at present the direct and indirect taxation of Great Britain were about equal, but in Ireland indirect taxation was over i 75 per cent, of the whole. An enormous proportion of the additional three millions imposed on Ireland in the last ten years had been raised by indirect taxation from the pocrest of the poor by taxation on their necessaries of life, upon tea, sugar, meal, tobacco, and other commodities which were absolutely necessaries of life. Ireland had not benefited in any way by this additional taxation. The increase had been caused simply by the^act that Ireland, a poor country, was tied up in a financial partnership to one of the greatest and richest empires in the world.