complaint of Ireland in regard to the Treasury returns.
Hitherto in Australia efforts to change the system for another
allocating the surplus on a basis of population have not been
successful.[105] The Canadian Federal Constitution uses the basis of
population for the distribution of small subsidies to the Provinces, but
complaints have arisen as to its fairness. British Columbia, for
example, for a long time complained that her subsidy was too small, one
of the grounds being that her consumption of dutiable goods was
unusually large. No means existed of verifying this complaint by
figures.[106]

With this explanatory digression about a very important feature of
Anglo-Irish finance, I return to the findings of the Royal Commission of
1894-1896. The figures supplied to them were as shown on the opposite
page.

It will be noticed that the average "true" revenue of Ireland was
stationary at a little over five millions from 1820 to 1850, rose with a
bound to seven and a half millions with the equalization of taxes in the
decade 1850-1860, and remained stationary at that figure for the
remaining thirty-four years. Expenditure in Ireland quadrupled in the
whole sixty-four years; and the net contribution to Imperial services,
after rising from three and a half millions (in round numbers) in 1820
to five and a half millions in 1860, fell automatically, as the
expenditure rose, and had stood at two millions from 1890 afterwards.
Population had fallen by two millions, but the "true" revenue raised per
head of population rose from 15s. 5d. in 1819 to L1 13s. 5d. in 1894,
while the local expenditure rose from 4s. 7d. per head in 1820 to L1 5s.
in 1894.

STATEMENT SHOWING THE ESTIMATED LOCAL EXPENDITURE INCURRED IN IRELAND,
AND THE BALANCE OF TRUE REVENUE WHICH IS AVAILABLE FOR IMPERIAL SERVICES
AFTER SUCH EXPENDITURE HAS BEEN MET:

Revenue as Adjustment Estimated Estimated Balance Population
Collected (+) or (-) True Local available
Revenue Expenditures for
Imperial
Services
Decadal
figures. L L L L L
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1819-20 5,253,909 + 2,655 5,256,564 1,564,880 3,691,684 6,801,000
1829-30 4,161,217