IRELAND S97 



the Chambers of Commerce of Dublin and Belfast, both of which bodies repudiated, as 

 did the Society itself, the suggestion that the Society was entering into direct competi- 

 tion with legitimate traders. The Commissioners stipulated, however, that certain 

 changes should be made in the composition of the governing committee of the Society 

 as a condition to the grant of a subsidy. The temporary loss of State assistance does 

 not appear to have injured the vitality or the financial stability of the society. Accord- 

 ing to the statement made at its annual meeting in 1911, it has about 900 branches, a 

 membership of 100,000, and a turnover of nearly 3,000,000. In the spring of 1912 a 

 Commission of Inquiry began to investigate the system of agricultural credit instituted 

 by the Society. In the course of its proceedings it was found that the Department of 

 Agriculture had lost only 100 out of 18,000 advanced to credit societies, and this loss 

 was more illusory than real since it did not include reference to the interest paid on 

 advances. It thus becomes clear that the department is making a handsome profit 

 out of the agricultural credit societies, and that the system is working admirably. 



The most interesting event of Irish economic history during 1910-12 was the estab- 

 lishment in 1910 of a society called the United Irishwomen. This body is affiliated 

 to the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, and was founded in order to do on the 

 social side of rural regeneration what the Organization Society has done, and is doing, 

 on the economic. It was intended, in effect, to develop the principle of " better living " 

 which is one tenet of the threefold faith of Irish rural reformers. Its policy includes the 

 teaching of cookery, poultry management and dairying, and the encouragement of 

 village crafts such as the making of furniture for cottages. Beginning with three bran- 

 ches, and finding the district of Connemara one which especially eagerly awaited develop- 

 ment, the organizers of the United Irishwomen were able in a year to announce the 

 existence of fifteen branches. This work is still rapidly expanding. ; 



Two incidents may be noted as indicating the growth of popular appreciation of Sir 

 Horace Plunkett and his work. In the early summer of 1910 the Department of 

 Agriculture combined with the Estates Commissioners to reconstruct a little patch of 

 rural life in Castlerea. The first action of the new land-holders was to combine with one 

 another in order to apply co-operative principles. This Mr. T. W. Russell admitted 

 was " but a sample of what is going on all over the West." The other incident was ah 

 "All-Ireland Model Election" conducted in December 1911 by the Proportional 

 Representation Society of Ireland. Intended as an " All-Ireland " election, it was 

 ultimately confined in operation to Ulster and the immediate vicinity of Dublin. It 

 resulted in the return at the head of the poll of a curious collocation of names Mr. 

 John Redmond, Sir Edward Carson, and Sir Horace Plunkett. 



The new land purchase policy which was instituted by the Act of 1909 has not been 

 justified by results. The changes from the provisions of the Wyndham Act may be 

 briefly reviewed. Instead of cash payments landlords were to receive stock at 3 per 

 cent. This stock was issued on a falling market, and cannot appreciate owing to the 

 embarrassment of Irish estates; about half of each issue has had to be thrown back on 

 the market for the redemption of mortgages. Instead of paying 3.53 per 100, tenants 

 were to pay 3.103 without any reduction in the period of repayment. A large propor- 

 tion of the holdings of Ireland are valued at less than 10 a year. A presumption was 

 created that all holdings below that value were to be deemed " uneconomic," with the 

 result that the whole of Connaught, with the counties of Donegal, Kerry, and part of 

 Cork, became " congested." The Congested Districts Board, charged with conducting 

 purchase in this area, is consequently swollen to unmanageable size. Comparisons 

 between the work of the Wyndham Act and the Birrell Act show the following results: 

 From 1903 to 1909 the number of potential purchasers was 217,299; from 1909 to 1911, 

 or a third of the previous time, the number was only 8992^1 decrease of over 80 per 

 cent. Under the Act of 1903 landlords were assisted in the repurchase of their demesnes 

 after selling their properties. Under the Act of 1903 the advances on resale to .owners 

 sanctioned by the Land Commission numbered 205; under the Act of 1909, up to the 

 end of the financial year 1911, only two. 



