BISHOP OF RAPHOE ON WAR TAXATION

New Zealand Tablet, 22 June 1916, Page 11

BISHOP OF RAPHOE ON WAR TAXATION

The Most Rev. Dr. O'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, in the course of an article on The Remedy for War Taxation in Ireland, which he has contributed to the new American paper, Ireland, writes: A .different scale of duties from those prevailing in Great Britain has not been sought. Whatever may happen under Home Rule, such a demand has not been considered practical politics hitherto; and war is scarcely a favorable occasion for submitting the proposition of an Irish Custom House with a view to lighten Irish taxation in this way. If the existing duties on spirits, tea, sugar, and tobacco, which press so heavily upon us, are lowered at all, they will be lowered all round, and of this there is no immediate prospect. In place of these dutiable articles it would be difficult to suggest, not- to say to carry, any reasonable substitutes of less common use in Ireland which would bring in the same money to the Exchequer. i Thrift, Economy, and Temperance. J» What, then, is the remedy ? Well, the message of thrift, economy, and temperance is heafd from all sides. It contains sound advice for the years of the war and for the lean years that are to follow. This, then,

is. the time to part company with the stimulants that are destroying the strength of our race. - A sense of self-respect may well save us from the shame of asking the British Parliament to let us have these stimulants at a moderate price while it is known that the use of them in Ireland is excessive. But, more than that, for those who do not go to the war and who are not confronted with the horrors of invasion at their doors," like the Poles and Belgians, it should not be too much to reduce the consumption of spirits, beer, and tobacco to a fraction of the outlandish measure it has reached. Then, if we had it for nothing, too much tea is being used; and it will help the stamina of our population to reduce the consumption of it largely and permanently. A corresponding reduction in the use of sugar will do us no harm. Self-Denial that Spells Victory. Income tax, which does not affect the working classes, is the only considerable factor in the war taxation that is riot a good deal under our own control. If we are a little brave with ourselves, and if a neighborhood would move together to give up stimulants, the burthen should prove a useful stimulant of a diifferent kind, by challenging in us individually and as a people, the self-control, self-restraint, and self-denial that spell victory and ensure heavy gain for time and for eternity. In the course of a war waged abroad for freedom, it is more than the money saved if, as free men, we hold ourselves perfectly in hand at home. In return for all the blood and treasure, it looks as if the war would yield Britain the hegemony at her ease of the commerce of the world and disarm the menace that threatened the danger points of her far-flung empire. Ireland for the present has very little shipping to enable her to share now in commercial prosperity. Yet if an Irish Parliament were in session, with full control over Irish taxation, it is not likely in these times it would sanction cheaper stimulants than across the water. The Government of Ireland Act does not confer anything like complete control of Irish finances, though full control subject to necessary imitations, is the recommendation of the Primrose Commission. But had it full sway, the Irish Government could do worse than tell our people to rely on the domestic remedy that is in their own hands. The Working of the Home Rule Act. After the destruction of so much capital, and the imposition of such heavy taxation, it will be stiff work for the Irish leaders to arrange a proper financial settlement when the Home Rule Act is coming into force. They will make the most of a difficult situation. For this the Act itself gives an opening. As matters stand, we are providing the whole of the extravagant expenditure on ' Irish services ' and a heavy war contribution besides. This latter, is equivalently an Imperial contribution ; and, unless we reduce now very considerably the consumption of dutiable commodities, it must prove particularly difficult, in the Home Rule settlement, to have the contribution fixed at the very moderate amount we can afford, considering the need of Ireland for development and her over-taxation in the past. But our hopes have only grown stronger. With any reasonable system of Government and a proper start, Ireland could easily defray the expenses of her own services, including a fair contribution to general defence. Whether she is destined to run the Empire or not in a generation, under native government, Ireland, North and South, should have her ships on every sea without detriment to the things of the mind and of the soul. "