Thoughts on reading the Hon. John P. Vereker's paper on absenteeism

Abstract

Even if we grant that Absenteeism is an evil, in an economical sense, what then? How would you cure it, without interfering with personal freedom? Who do you call an absentee? Is it the man who derives rent from one part of the kingdom, and spends it in another—from Ireland, for instance, to spend it in England? Mr. Vereker speaks of this man as an absentee. Might he not as well call the landlord of an estate in Munster, who reside in Leinster, an absentee?—or even closer—in the adjoining county, or parish? Again, it is said that money spent in the country must do good, and augment its wealth, either directly or indirectly. It might be better for a tenantry that a landlord should spend his rents in the gambling houses at Baden-baden. Such a thing is possible, and in point of fact, the tenantry of absentees are more thriving than are the tenantry of some resident proprietors.