[To TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—I was surprised on reading Mr. Moreton Frewen's letter (Spectator, January 14th) to learn that he only pays his gardener in Cork 8s. a week. In Belfast, a city much despised and much abused by the Nationalist Party to which Mr. Frewen belongs, the wages of an unskilled labourer range from 16s. to 21s. a week. Mr. Frewen is fortunate in securing labour so cheaply in Nationalist Cork. But should the British taxpayers be called upon so to arrange the finances of the country that employers in Cork shall get labour for less than one-half the amount paid in other parts of the country P Should Mr. Frewen not read the official statistics published by the Department of Agriculture last month, which show that since 1893 the amounts of the deposits in Irish savings- banks have trebled P If he cares to make himself conversant with facts regarding Ireland, he will learn that the country was on the verge of bankruptcy when the Union took place. If Ireland is as poor as Mr. Frewen believes, why should she • Encyc. Brit., XIX., 514. t rhitakmr's Almanac, 1911, p. 485. j Th., p. 47Z, I Ii., p. 459.
be saddled with the cost of a separate Government P If economies are to be carried out, the work can only be done by the Imperial Government. Home-rule must lead to one of two ends, injustice to Great Britain in the way of taxation for Irish purposes, or bankruptcy for Ireland.—I am, Sir, &c.,
FAIR PLAY.
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