How the Money is Spent

New Zealand Tablet, 1 June 1911, Page 1025

How the Money is Spent

" $ 11 - V '•:: . How Irish money is wastefully spent on had government in Ireland has been often illustrated by official figures. We give some more of them as follow from a speech delivered recently at a meeting in Dublin by Mr. Patrick Little. Such facts cannot be too often repeated; 'The number of Civil Departments (Dublin- Castle Boards) have been calculated as sixty-seven. These arc spread all over the city. The coat of the Irish police amounts to 5s 8d per head. The cost of the Scotch and" English, 2s 2d and 2s 4d per head. The most scandalous extravagance is under the head of judicature. There we have'some princely salaries. . But this madness has a remarkable amount of political method in it, a method which has cut off the larger part of the legal profession from the national life of the country. The Lord Chancellor receives £6OOO a year, one thousand more than the Prime Minister. The Lord Chief Justice and the Attorney-General, each £SOOO a year, the same as the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the. Exchequer. Four Judges have each £4OOO or over. Eight Judges have £3500 each. Three Judges do the work of one Judge in England. Sixteen Countv Court Judges have £I4OO each. Half of them could do the . work as efficiently. Five Recorders have from £ISOO to_£2ooo each. The President,of the Swiss Republic has £7OO, a year, and no Judge iii Belgium has more than £4OO a; year. The Lord Chief Justice’s Secretary gets £SOO a year in contrast to the President of the Parliament • in Sweden, who gets £550 a year. The Lord Lieutenant gets £20,000. He used to get £30,000. The President of the TJ.S.A. gets £15,000 a year. Ho used to get £IO,OOO. In the Estimates, for the year 1905, says Lord Dun raven, “the sum placed upon 26 Irish votes amounts to about four and one-half millions, of which about three millions are. for salaries and pensions. Head for head the Irish Government costs more than any civilised Government in the world.’’ 5