Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/120

PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. "large revenue from spirits, tea, and tobacco, is advantageous to the population of Ireland, although it may be advantageous to the population of the United Kingdom looked at as a whole. It may even perhaps be said that just as Ireland suffered in the last century from the protective and exclusive commercial policy of Great Britain, so she has been at a disadvantage in this century from the adoption of an almost unqualified free-trade policy for the United Kingdom.'"

Secondly, the extension to Ireland of the income-tax, and the equalisation of the spirit duties during the period 1853-60, imposed an increased burden on the Irish taxpayer amounting to nearly two millions a year.

5. It is desirable that the Local Taxation Account should disappear altogether from the accounts of the Imperial Exchequer, and that the National Legislatures should deal in future with all grants in aid of Local Taxation.—The local taxation revenue is derived from customs, excise duty, and estate duty. The amounts contributed under each head in 1900-01 are as follows:—

In addition to the above, there are payments from the Exchequer revenue to local taxation accounts of 102