IRISH LETTER

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1930, Page 8

IRISH LETTER

FREE STATE BUDGET

AN INTERNAL LOAN

BORDER UNDESIRABLES

DUBLIN, May 21

Mr Ernest' JJlythe, Minister of Finance, Friee State, presented bis Budget to the Dadl the other day. It received a mixed reception, but taken alii round a favourable one. There was nothing heroic in it, and there was no relief for anybody worth mentioning. Among the chief points ot interest were that duty on wines of 25 per cent, spirit proof will be reduced from 5s to 3s per gallon; similar wines imported in bottles to be charged an additional 2s per gallon, instead of 4s; the additional duty on .sparkling wines to be reduced to 12s 6d per gallon. These reductions are on account of the recently effected commercial treaty with France. Income tax remains the same, the idea being to appeal to Irish people living in England or abroad to return Home—the average exile likes to remain one—hawkers of goods along the highways by motor car will be asked to pay a road tax of £lO per annum from August next, in response iti the town and city shop-keepers’ appeals that the hawkers are doing them great harm while riot contributing to the rates as property owners. My Blythe, on his estimated income and outlay expects to save about £13,000 this year. Of course, there is still a’little trifle of a deficit of about £15,000,000. BORROWING LOCALLY. The Free State loan is fixed at £6,000,000. Scrip has been issued at 93J with interest at the rate of 4$ per cent, so that it will cost the Government rather less than the previous loan. The entire loan i:s to be raised in the Free State, and no doubt the sum required will be forthcoming. The issue is really a test of Free State credit in its own country. It is a curious fact that,' while political feeling has gone high at times since the cessation of hostilities between the Government and the militant Republicans, national credit suffered but little., To he sure, the Government has been very careful in financial matters, and although many charges of squandering national revenue, and incurring heavy taxation has been levelled against it, on the whole it has done well. ■'Raising''the home loan of £6,000,000 is a good political stroke, as people who invest money will not want any change of Government. It must he confessed that the Government is much in need of ready money for roads, housing—a crying out need—drainage works, bridge building and the like. London would give the money, so would New York, U.8.A.; at a stiff price, 'so that Mr Blythe’s loan at home is doubly wise. With the new loan Mr Blythe will be able to pay off some of the short loans, which are now due to the banks. Of course, the £6,000,000 loan is merely staving off the day when a much bigger one will he a necessity. The 1930 loan will not be redeemable till 1 1970—forty years from now. At the moment; the national debt i;s about £20,000,000, and Mr Blythe thinks that with a brisk I trade revival—which-has yet to come and a steady improvement in agriculture—which is almost on its last legs as a money-making proposition—that debt will be paid off in ten years ! UNGALLANT irishmen. A decree of the Co. Wexford Board of Health enacts that in future married men only will be given tenancies in its cottages, and to give point to the ukase, several single men have I been noticed to leave their cottages I within three months unless they marry , iii the interim. ’ A curious situation .has arisen as the I bachelors have formed an association to fight the health hoard, which they say has exceeded it’s duty in making matrimony compulsory qualification for ! tenancy. “It is conscription,” said one aggrieved bachelor. “Our advice, says a manifesto published to-day, “is you bachelors to keep clear of girls and retain your independence.” Said bne abandoned monster to a Press jpan: “Every time I see a red-cheeked | damsel with her dainty figure and bright 'eyes approaching me, I remember that my cake lasts twice as long for one' than it would for two, when she asks me if I feel lonesome.” SHAMROCK V. It is reported that the Shamrock, the new challenger of the America t)up, made a good show when she stretched her canvas for the first time off Cowes. The Shamrock will go into training I for the great event by taking part j in evary possible regatta, not that her performance there would indicate her chances in a big race, but to ac- ’ custom her officers and crew with her sailing points, and give them experience of handling her to the best ad-, vantage in racing conditions and in all kinds of weather.. | Sir Thomas Liptori, her veteran Ulster owner, will visit Belfast Lough in her in June or July. He expressed himself well pleased with her sailing last Saturday. He is expending a truly enormous sura of money on his yacht, and while she will sail in many regatta he will accompany her in his luxurious steam yacht Erin, which , costs the big end of £IOOO per week

to run. The Shamrock will Sail under the burgee of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, both on this side and the other side of the Atlantic. Altogether Sir Thomas has spent £500,000 in his efforts to bring back the America Cup—a battered old bit of plate.' the intrinsic value of which is not more than a £lO note—to this country-. He is very, very confident that Shamrock V. will bring back the Cup to be placed on t}ie side board of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, Belfast Lough. He spent his eightieth birthday, on -the Erin at Southampton—he was 80 on Saturday, the 10th. inst—within , a stone throw of his new yacht. KEEPING ORDER. It is understood that both the Free State Government and;, the Northern Ireland Government are working in perfect co-operation with regard to undesirables who skip across the Border when their own side -has become too hot for them, This mutual action for the better preservation of the rights of meum and teum is much appreciated by the folk on the border line, the latter having been infested for- some time by gangs, the breaking-up-of which has been to the benefit of the general community. “Poteen stilling” i s going on yet, and active action by the Civic Guard on the Free -State side, and by the Royal Ulster Constabulary on the other, is productive of good. It lias been officially calculated that the Free State is losing not less than £50,000 in revenue alone, each year, by the prevalence of this illicit practice. The wilds of Donegal and Kerry are among the places infested by poteen gangs, the Peninsula of Innishowen, in the former place, being one of the worst, areas.