IRISH FREE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17975, 21 March 1930, Page 10

IRISH FREE STATE.

FINANCIAL POSITION. ■ THE COMING LOAN. V (From a Gorrespondent.) 5 DUBLIN, .lanuary 26. ’ 11 is natural for parents lo be proud of their offspring, and be even blind to their shortcomings. II is certainly ’ unnatural and unkind lo disparage > them wrongfully aim without cause. • Mr Birrell, when Ch ef Secretary, did : 'more, than any oilier holder of that office to make Home Rule a realitj. ■ Now, when interviewed on his eightieth birthday, lie says, in effect, poor Ireland! She has had her way, and there she is in a “muddle” and “pretty well bankrupt.” These jeremiads are in the same strain as a certain pamphlet that still circulates among the emigres, where all the bad is stressed and all the good ignored. The charge of bankruptcy is especially reckless. Finance is the most reassuring feature of our affairs. We inherited a very expensive social service, ar.d it is being maintained. Apart from obvious capital issues, like the Shannon cloelricfication and Harrow drainage, our last Budget was balanced from revenue, except for about 4 per cent., due entirely to abnormal services. Our national 5 per cent, stock stands at parity to-day; very soon wc hope to borrow on a 5 per cent, basis; our income tax is 3s in the pound, our death duties on large incomes ait lower than in England; and our total public debt is still less than one year’s income. It is true that our cost of living is high and increasing, and that the burden of taxation relative to national wealth is no lighter than in England, but to suggest that the country i s bankrupt, or nearly so, is grotesque. Uttered with some semblance of authority, such a statement may he specially damaging at the present time. During the current year the Government will be seeking lo issue tbe balance of eight millions of an authorised loan of fifteen millions, seven of which was placed in 1928 at Home and in New York. As the American market j ill now unfavourable the British inves- j tor might he expected to participate, j and it is only fair he should know the facts. Impartial inquiry cannot fail to i prove that our credit is as high as, if i not higher than, that, of many Dominions which the City of London has so readily supported in the past. Trustee Status. Borrowing in England presents, however, one difficulty which arise - ' from the growth of national consciousness and Dominion independence. Irt order to ensure the trustee status of its stock it is necessary for the borrowing Dominiou, Colony, or Dependency to agree to certain conditions imposed ‘by the British Treasury, having for their object the protection of investing trustees. One of these conditions, which involves the rigiu to veto legislation calculated to damage the security, is regarded as derogatory by certain Dominions. ' It is urged that they can, and should, be trusted to avoid doing obvious injvuy to themselves. On the other hand, there is nothing so dangerous to sound j finance as well-meant idealism, and j recent events in Queensland showed j how necessary it was for the British | Government to possess power to pro- ! tect Britisli investors. To grant un- i conditionally to all Dominion loans a | trustee status is rather to work on-j the bcads-I-win-tails -you-lose prin- ; ciplc and to forget that (he first duty j of a country is towards its own j nationals. The whole subject is one that the forthcoming Imperial Conference might well consider. Institute of Folk Lore. In my young days I was told of the custom, when butter-making, of putting a piece of butter on the window | to keep the fairies away. The younger j generation 1 have questioned seem to i know nothing about it. The people \ are naturally sensitive about these | superstitions, which under modern influences are disappearing. For years past the Royal Irish Academy and the Irish Folk Lore Society have been working under difficulties to preserve the old' songs and traditions of the country. These two bodies are now to form the nucleus of an Institute ot ; Folk Lore, which is lo receive a small j Put welcome Government grant of j £SOO a .year. The West especially is i rich in old traditions, many of which j are oral only, and with the invasion ; of modern ways they are in danger of being forgotten. They can, however, be saved by systematic and expert ■ research, such as Sir Walter Runciman lias done for, sea shanties, and Cecil Sharpe for folk music. This, together with the grant of £IOOO a year to the Abbey Theatre, and assistr ance towards Hie classification of Celtic texts shows that the Depart--1 ment or Finance is not quite so lacking in soul as some of its more prac- ’ lical critics would suggest. | Wild Birds Protection. Another activity along similar lines is that to protect such of our wild birds as do no damage to fruit and farm crops. Snaring rabbits and catching birds is almost the sole livelihood of a certain class, who dislike steady work and delight in gambling and oSvsr spasmodic pursuits. They supply a lot. or the birds which give such J*r to those who live in the grim monotony of our cities, hut in doing so they cause e. great deal of cruelly. It is not so much the. birds that arc caught that need ho pitied, but those that eeoape—or, not. being required, arc released —with bird-lime on their feet, and die a lingering death. A measure lias now passed the Senate, and will come before the Daii on its re-assembling, which makes it an offence lo use a wild bird as a decoy or to use bird-lime, to hurt birds by trapping, and to keep them in improper cages. This measure received warm support at a largely attended meeting in tile Mansion House, where the Provost of Trinity College presided. Anybody who has visited the Continent, and more especially France, r must hjve noticed how the most lovely : country is lonely and loses much of its charm by the absence of birds. Wild life is one of Ireland’s great, delights, a«4 it should lie preserved as a soothing; contrast to the modern restless life.