IRELAND 599 



by help from the Department. Endeavours to extend the sale of fish in inland towns are 

 being continued; in 1911 there were about 150 towns on the Department's official list. 



Comfnerce.- In the fiscal year of 1909-10 the value of imports amounted to 63,779,709, 

 and of exports to 60,946, 1 86. In the fiscal year of 1910-11 the value of exports, for the 

 first time on record since the institution of these returns in 1904, exceeded that of imports. 

 Imports were returned at 65,044,477 and exports at 65,844,255 an aggregate of 130,- 

 888,732. This is nearly 28 per head of the population, while the corresponding figure for 

 Great Britain was just over 20. Excepting Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and New Zea- 

 land, the external trade of Ireland is greater, in proportion to its size, than that of any- 

 country in the world. There is certainly no other country where the figures of external 

 trade more closely approximate to a measure of the actual productive prosperity. The 

 value of the export transit trade to Great Britain is officially estimated at four-fifths of 

 the total, or about 52,600,000. There has been a substantial increase in the export trade 

 of yarns, especially to foreign countries. The value for 1910 was 1,197,000. The increase 

 was especially marked in the exports to the United States; linen goods form two thirds of 

 the Irish trade with that country. In recent years, largely as the result of the efforts of the 

 " Made-m- Ireland '* movement, certain foreign countries have begun to show separate details 

 for Irish imports in their trade returns. These returns illustrate the present variety and 

 extent of Ireland's foreign trade. Those for 1910-11 are the latest available. The value of 

 French imports from Ireland was 141,000 (mainly salted meat, pork, cereals and yarns); 

 Belgian 4000 (iron, steel and linens); Dutch 234,000 (yarn, malt, flax, wool and grass 

 seed); Cuban 216,000 (cotton, linen and woollen tissues). These figures represent the 

 direct trade ; The < actual trade is many times greater, but the bulk of it passes through 

 Great Britain and is credited under that heading by the Customs authorities. 



The leading article of export from Ireland remains live-stock. Nearly all of it is imported 

 by Great Britain. Reference has been made above to the causes of decline under this head. 

 In the year ended March 31, 1912 the numbers of the live-stock export had decreased by 

 more than 200,000 as compared with the preceding year. The numbers stood at 1,742,477 

 and the value at 13,520,754. Cattle accounted for 689,550 of the numbers and for 9,508,- 

 083 of the value. At the end of June 1912 the export of cattle to Great Britain came to an 

 abrupt standstill in consequence of the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle de- 

 spatched from Swords, County Dublin, and the subsequent closing of English ports against 

 Irish cattle. The weekly loss to Ireland while this embargo (which was imposed at the height 

 of the fat cattle season) rested was estimated at a minimum of 20,000. The disease was 

 isolated with more success by the Irish Department of Agriculture than was the case in 

 Great Britain, but during the first weeks after the outbreak the necessary "standstill" order 

 resulted in the stagnation of the country fairs as well as the cessation of export. Six weeks 

 after the outbreak all Irish ports except Dublin, Drogheda and Dundalk had been opened, 

 but only for immediate slaughter at the English ports of landing. As a result the fat cattle 

 trade suffered enormously, and as the season advanced the case of the store cattle trade 

 became even worse. The calamity concentrated the attention of Irish stock-raisers on the 

 merits of the dead-meat trade, whose establishment has been urged for several years past 

 by the Irish Agricultural Organization Society. It was also recommended by a deputation 

 of Irish farmers which in 1910, at the instance of the Department of Agriculture, investigated 

 the dead-meat trade of Scotland. A dead-meat trade was established experimentally at 

 Wexford and Drogheda and has since flourished. Late in August 1912 a movement to 

 organise the trade throughout the country was set on foot. 



The principal items of the Irish import trade remain chiefly the same as those of Great 

 Britain in the past two years. In the case of articles similar to those produced in Ireland, 

 however, it is noticeable that the bacon import had declined in value (1910-11) to 1,659,000. 

 The butter import for the same year valued 478,000. The decline during the past two 

 years in the Irish butter export was not, as an enquiry conducted by the Agricultural Or- 

 ganization Society showed, due to a decrease in production, but to an increase in home 

 consumption for which the "better living" in rural districts which the Society promotes is 

 responsible. In this connection the increase of deposits and cash balances in the Irish 

 Joint Stock Banks, Trustee Savings Banks, and Post Office Savings Banks (1,910,000 

 in 1909 to 2,402,000 at the beginning of 1911) is worthy of notice. Banking accounts 

 also show much larger amounts under the head of advances to customers, made mainly for 

 industrial purposes and land improvement. 



Communications. Railway traffic returns reveal similar features of expansion. The 

 total receipts for 1909-10 were 41,180,023, and for 1910-11 41,302,720. These returns 

 are the highest on record. The railway strike in the summer of 1911 resulted in a slight 

 setback, but this was successfully overcome. In 1910 the main railway companies met, for 

 the purpose of developing the inland sale of fish referred to above, the demand for reduced 

 freights and through rates for this traffic. The Great Southern Railway has made arrange- 

 ments for a junction with the proposed Athy and Queen's County Railway at Athy, a 

 project whose completion will benefit the coalfield of the district. The Midland Railway 

 has completed the doubling of the line between Athenry and Attymon Junction, and this 



