The Irish standard., 1905-10-07

Io04V > 4OVO.
1t has been the policy of successive
chancellors and governments for many
years to bring down indirect taxation,
and. if possible, to equalize direct and
indirect taxation in Great Britain. He
would be very rash statesmen who
would venture to disturb this balance.
But the policy has been quite different
in Ireland. Indirect taxation has never
been reduced in Ireland. Today it is
IS per cent. of the whole, which means
that the great burden of taxation of the
stricken class of the population. In
1S93-s4 the indirect taxes amounted to
e5,267,775. In 19O4-O5 it had risen to
6 6,S90,0O0. This enormous increase
came entirely from increased taxes
upon food, upon what are for the poor
really necessities of life-tea, sugar, to-
bacco and meal.
What cruel thing it is that while
every industry and interest in the
country is neglected, while education
Is starved, while the laborers can get
no justice, while the artisans of the
towns cannot get decent habitations,
while the drainage of Irish rivers
is neglected, while Irish railways
are the worst and dearest in the
world, and nothing is done to
improve transit facilities, while the
piers and harbors of the country are
disgrace and danger to human life,
and while all these things are so be-
cause of want of money-what scam
dal and crime it is that all the while
we are supporting the most expensive
government in the world, and are pay
ing from e3,oOO,O00 to e5,O0O,0Oo a
year more than our taxable capacity
warrants as compared to Great Britain.
Just think of how Ireland would be
transformed if even a portion of this
money of which We are annually rob-
bed were spent under the paternal care
Of a native government upon some
of these matters have mentioned, in
stead of being squandered as it is
today.
In my deliberate opinion the utterly
defective condition of railway and
transit facilities generally is the most
serious of all the causes which keep
Ireland in state of chronic poverty
The rates of carriage in Ireland must
be reduced fully so per cent. before
profitable employment can be provided
for the people of Ireland and emigra-
tion stopped. 1t is beyond dispute that
nine-tenths of the ordinary agricul-
tural products consumed in the English
markets, which are produced, or could
be, in abundance by Ireland, are sup
piled by foreign producers, and the
reason is perfectly clear. 1t is because
in every country in Europe enormous
decreases have been effected in rates
of carriage during the last twenty five
years, while in Ireland freights are still
monstrously and prohibitively high.
Recently a woolen factory was estab-
lished in the town of Galway. They
get all the coal they require from Eng
land. But in the next county, in Arig-
ma, in the County Roscommon, there is
plenty of just the class of the coal they
require to be had at SIS. Cd. ton, but
the carriage from Arigna to Galway is
1885, 3d. which makes the price con-
siderably more than that of the Eng
lish COAL
The question of Irish railways has
been discussed by several Royal Com
missions, which have recommended ma
tionaization, state purchase, amalga-
nation and other remedies, but which
have never led to any practical result
whatever. For my part, have no hes
itation in expressing the opinion that
this question can only be satisfactorily
settled by the naturalization of Irish
railways and waterways, and that until
this is done no real permanent i'm
provement will be found for a great
deal of the poverty of Ireland.
1t is estimated that there are 150O,-
900 acres of waste lands in Ireland
which are capable of reclamation for
agriculture, and it is estimated that the
cost of reclamation would be G6 los,
per acre, or e9,75O,OOO in all. Reclaim
alton of waste land in other European
countries, which are, however, self
governed, has been carried out on far
greater scales at far greater cost.
The Dutch government drained Lake
HARLEM, Transforming it into $4,000
acres of meadow at a cost Of G19 an
acre, and they pumped out about half
million acres of the Zuyder Zee at
cost Of 6 1S All acre, and 1 understand
/