[To TIER EDITOR OF THY . EFECTATOR...]
Sc,—I have pleasure in recognising the courteous impartiality with which you published my letter on this subject in your issue of May 4th, but by a clerical error, for which I alone am to blame, I gave the cost of Irish administration in 1894 at 23,600,000, instead of 25,600,000, an increase not of £300,000, but of 23,300,000. These figures are admittedly accurate, and they appear in the Report of Lords Fairer, Welby, and Mr. Currie, three of the Royal Commissioners on the financial relations, whose Reports were presented in 1896. In your comments on my letter you say the "ridiculous assumption" that Ireland is overtaxed has repeatedly been refuted in your columns. Pardon me in saying this overtaxation has not been" assumed," it has been proved before two Royal Commissions. I have read the Reports and evidence, and invite all Irish Unionists to study them and the Act itself. May I add that your other comments ignore altogether the breaking by Great Britain of the bargain struck between the two countries by the Union Statute, while your reference to individual taxpayers raises a fallacious 'issue ? I might postulate equal taxes on the same commodities and similar incomes in the two countries, and prove inequality of burden. One has also to consider how Great Britain drains off our wealth and diminishes for us in Ireland opportunities and possibilities of earning income.—I am, Sir, &c., HAI/BURY CLEMENTS GEOGHEGAN, Law Library, Four Courts, Dublin.
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