To sum up once more, the cost of the Irish Government as paid out of the common purse in the last completed financial year was £11,344,500, or £2 11s. 9d. per head of the population, as compared with a cost per head of £1 9s. 2d. in England, and in Scotland of £1 13s. 3½d. But this is not the minimum figure with which we have to reckon in considering the Home Rule scheme; some items show a marked increase in the Estimates of the current year: (1) The increase in Old Age Pensions, not certain yet, will be at least £250,000. (2) The Land Commission is £544,000, as compared with £414,500. (3) Universities and Colleges, £186,256, as compared with £166,000. (4) Department of Agriculture, £426,609, as compared with £415,000. (5) Registrar-General's Office, £29,020, as compared with £13,000. (6) Valuation and Boundary Survey, £44,581, as compared with £30,000. (7) Public Works and Buildings in Ireland, £273,370, as compared with £215,000. Even with allowance for over-estimates, especially in the last of these items,[132] we must anticipate an increase of nearly half a million under the above heads, to which we must add £150,000 recently allocated by the Road Board to Ireland for the year 1911-12, and £34,750 already allocated by the Development Commissioners. If Ireland comes prematurely into the National Insurance scheme, and assumes eventual financial responsibility for her share of the cost, that will be an additional source of expense; but it is to be hoped that her leaders, in common prudence, will henceforth endeavour to stem the rising flood of Irish expenditure, and so facilitate the retrenchments imperatively necessary under Home Rule. As it is, the total outgoings of the current year (1911-12), swelled by the increases shown above, will probably amount to £12,000,000, while this total will in its turn be added to by the office costs of the Irish Legislature and the salaries of Ministers.
The scheme framed cannot assume immediate economies, and a responsible Ireland alone can decide the nature and extent of the drastic economies which must be made in the future. Beyond the brief remarks and hints made in the course of this chapter, I myself venture only to lay down the broad proposition that, to the last farthing, Irish revenue must govern and limit Irish expenditure. For any hardship entailed in achieving that aim Ireland will find superabundant compensation in the moral independence which is the foundation of national welfare. She will be sorely tempted to sell part of her freedom for a price. At whatever cost, she will be wise to resist.
If Irish revenue is to be the measure of Irish expenditure, it follows that it must be wholly, or at any rate predominately, under Irish control. Let us look a little more closely, therefore, into its amount and composition.
III.
IRISH REVENUE.
As I have already pointed out, in order to arrive at the present revenue of Ireland, our best course is to take the mean tax revenue of the two years 1909-10 and 1910-11, and to add to it the non-tax revenue of 1910-11, which was, of course, unaffected by the delay in passing the Budget of 1909. For clearness, however, I first set out separately the Irish figures of these two years, distinguishing between tax revenue and non-tax revenue, and giving the "collected" revenue and the "true" revenue in different columns:
| 1909-10. | 1910-11. | |||
| Revenue as Collected. | "True." | Revenue as Collected. | "True" | |
| TAX REVENUE. | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| Customs | 2,742,000 | 2,755,000 | 3,103,000 | 2,977,000 |
| Excise | 4,487,000 | 2,898,000 | 5,826,000 | 3,734,000 |
| Estate, etc., Duties | 684,000 | 684,000 | 1,144,000 | 1,144,000 |
| Stamps | 293,000 | 315,000 | 326,000 | 351,000 |
| Income Tax | 388,000 | 451,000 | 1,825,000 | 2,164,000 |
| Land Value Duties | — | — | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Total Irish Revenue from Taxes | 8,594,000 | 7,103,000 | 12,225,000 | 10,371,000 |
| NON-TAX REVENUE. | ||||
| Postal Service | 900,000 | 900,000 | 935,000 | 935,000 |
| Telegraph Service | 180,000 | 180,000 | 185,500 | 185,500 |
| Telephone Service | 30,000 | 30,000 | 35,000 | 35,000 |
| Crown Lands | 26,000 | 26,000 | 24,500 | 24,500 |
| Miscellaneous | 116,000 | 116,000 | 114,500 | 114,500 |
| Total Irish Non-Tax Revenue | 1,252,000 | 1,252,000 | 1,294,500 | 1,294,500 |
| Aggregate Irish Revenue | 9,846,000 | 8,355,000 | 13,519,500 | 11,665,500 |
| Percentage of the Aggregate Revenue of the United Kingdom | 7.52 | 6.38 | 6.57 | 5.67 |
On p. 276 are the details of the mean tax revenue, "collected" and "true," of the two years 1909-10, 1910-11, with the non-tax revenue of the latest year, 1910-11, added to them.
PRESENT IRISH REVENUE (MEAN OF THE LAST TWO YEARS).
| Details of Revenue. | Mean Collected Tax Revenue of the Years 1909-10, 1910-11. | Mean "True" or "Contributed" Tax Revenue of the Years 1909-10, 1910-11. | |
| TAX REVENUE. | £ | £ | |
| Indirect Taxation | Customs | 2,922,500 | 2,866,000 |
| Excise (incl. licences £284,500) | 5,156,500 | 3,316,000 | |
| Total Indirect Taxation | 8,079,000 | 6,182,000 | |
| Estate Duties | 914,000 | 914,000 | |
| Direct Taxation | Stamps | 309,500 | 333,000 |
| Income Tax | 1,106,500 | 1,307,500 | |
| Land Value Duties | 1,000 | 1,000 | |
| Total Direct Taxation | 2,331,000 | 2,555,500 | |
| Total Tax Revenue | 10,410,000 | 8,737,500 | |
| NON TAX REVENUE (1910-11). | |||
| Postal Service | 935,000 | 935,000 | |
| Telegraph Service | 185,500 | 185,500 | |
| Telephone Service | 35,000 | 35,000 | |
| Crown Lands | 24,000 | 24,500 | |
| Miscellaneous | 114,500 | 114,500 | |
| Total Non Tax Revenue (1910-11) | 1,294,500 | 1,294,500 | |
| Collected Revenue at the Present Day. | "True" or "Contributed" Revenue at the Present Day. | ||
| Aggregates | 11,704,500 | 10,032,000 | |