Even to this report there were added five supplementary reports
by Commissioners who had signed this, the first by the chairman (the O'Conor Don), Mr. John Redmond, and three others, which concurs very much with Mr. Childers's draft report, and especially adopts the assess- ment to Death-duties as supplying a maximum measure of the relative capacity of the two countries for bearing taxation. A second supplementary report was made by Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, and Mr. B. W. Currie, who think that Ireland is more heavily taxed than she would be if she were not in the same boat with Great Britain, and also that much more of the revenue raised is spent in Ireland than economy would justify, if she were not in the same boat with a rich country like England. Then there is a third supplementary report by Mr. Sexton, Mr. Blake, M.P., and Mr. Slattery, who hold that Ireland appears richer than she is because her land-assess- tnent is higher than ours in Great Britain, and also because so much Irish income leaves Ireland to be spent by absentees. Then Mr. Blake makes an addition of his own to Mr. Sexton's report, and Lord Welby to Lord Fames. The separate reports by Sir Thomas Sutherland and Sir David Barbour on the whole support the principle that the fusion of the finances of Great Britain and Ireland is the right system, and that it should rather be extended than revolutionised. Both these latter reports are very able.
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