5,500
5. Civil Service Departments 289,500
6. Department of Agriculture 415,000
7. Police 1,464,500
8. Judiciary, etc. 924,000
9. Education, etc. 1,805,000
10. Old Age Pensions 2,408,000
11. Superannuation, etc. 103,000
12. Ireland Development Grant 191,500
13. Miscellaneous 12,000
14. Revenue Departments 298,000
15. Postal Services 1,404,500

Total L11,346,500

The first striking fact in the foregoing statement is the large
difference between "contributions" and "collections," _i.e._ between the
"true" revenue derived from Ireland and the sums merely collected there.
During the last two financial years this difference amounted to an
average of L1,752,000. The excise collections alone represent an excess
of L1,920,000 over the actual contribution. This, of course, arises from
the movements of duty-paid spirits and beer between different parts of
the United Kingdom. The last Report of the Commissioners of Customs and
Excise (Cd. 5827) gives the amount of home-made spirits on which duty
has been paid in Ireland at 5,209,000 proof gallons, whereas the
quantity retained for consumption was only 2,776,000 proof gallons. A
similar but smaller difference exists in the case of beer. To credit
Ireland with the full amounts of the duties collected in Ireland, as was
done by Mr. Gladstone in 1886, and as is now proposed in some quarters,
would, in effect, amount to a gift from the British Exchequer of
L1,750,000 a year. And there is obviously no security that the Irish
Exchequer could rely on this boon being continued for more than a short
time. There would be nothing to prevent the British spirit merchant from
removing his spirits to this country in bond and paying the duty here
after arrival. It is obvious that the Treasury would be compelled to
grant facilities for this course. The present system is merely one of
book-keeping and administrative convenience, but as the withdrawal of
this sum from the British Exchequer to which it properly belongs would
have to be made good from other British sources, there would be every
inducement for the British merchant to effect such slight chan