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of water to be utilized at a trifling expense to produce 

 what ? — I dare hardly write the sum, nor has it yet scarcely 

 passed the portals of my appreciation, so wondrous is its 

 meaning, so marvellous the effects to be produced. But here 

 is the book from which I have compiled my area statistics, 

 and in the United States annexe is to be found the man 

 who, by his own and country's experience and world-wide 

 investigation, must be answerable for my conclusion that 

 there is idle in Ireland a portion of its surface capable of 

 yielding, at the French computation, £862,^^0 annually, and 

 supplying innumerable tons of food to the Imperial store. 

 Let any member of the Legislature move for a return of the 

 inland waters of Ireland, and their several acreages which I 

 have shown can be readily given, and their deducting such 

 areas as the Lakes Erne and Neagh, and confining the 

 calculation to lakes and waters completely within our own 

 power, to utilize to the full, and there remains a wondrous 

 lever to raise the status of the people there, and by a 

 mutual interest increase the correspondence and further the 

 intimacy and confidence of the two countries. For evi- 

 dence, however, on the vital abstract of unlimited demand, 

 I must come to England for my information, and London 

 alone will pretty well suffice to set the matter at rest. I 

 find Mr. Birkbeck, M.P., while presiding at the Inaugurating 

 Meeting of the " Fish Culture Association," said he hoped 

 that " the Government will see its way to affording support 

 similar to that which was afforded by the Governments of 

 America and Canada ; " and further stated that, " owing to 

 the demand for fish as food, it was necessary that some- 

 thing should be done in the direction of fish culture in 

 rivers as well as the sea." That this is an authoritative 

 piece of evidence that the present supply is not sufficient 

 an audience in this building will not deny. I might quote 



