Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/131

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FEDERAL FINANCE.

England. Scotland. Ireland.
£ £ £
Licences 3,550,000 375,000 211,000
Railway duty 315,000 24,000
Land tax and. house duty 2,321,000 146,000
Stamps 6,939,000 623,000 290,000
Miscellaneous revenue 792,000 82,000 116,000
Crown lands 408,000 24,000 33,000
14,325,000 1,274,000 650,000
Expenditure on civil administration 22,559,000 3,227,000 5,919,000
Deficiency 8,234,000 1,953,000 5,269,000


Objections to to meeting deficiency by grants from the Imperial Exchequer.This deficiency could be made good by grants from the Imperial exchequer, and this is the course which commends itself to some of those who have studied the subject with me. The objections to it are that the proportion of the revenues of the national authorities which would be allocated to them, or under their own control, would be insufficient to give that sense of financial responsibility which it is so desirable that they should possess. This objection applies with especial force to the case of Ireland, in which only one-eighth of the national revenue would be allocated to the national authority. 'Grants of money,' say Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, and Mr. Currie in the report already quoted, 'made by Parliament are more likely to impoverish than enrich the community which receives them, tending as they do to weaken the spirit of independence and self-reliance.' To this weighty opinion I attach the utmost importance. The system of grants from the Imperial revenue in aid of local taxation certainly does not tend to economy in local expenditure. A plan based on large grants from the Imperial exchequer to the national authorities would have a similar effect

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