CHAPTER XIII. 

 WASTE 



I HAVE referred to waste and failure. Let me 

 submit two typical and common instances out of 

 many. On finding out that the Department had 

 money to spend, a " religious " institution 

 promptly " qualified " itself for a technical school, 

 on a " qualification " made easy by not permitting 

 anybody else to qualify, like the Chinese Viceroy 

 who entered his horse for a race and came in first 

 because everybody else was afraid to run against 

 him. There is no need to name a particular 

 institution, and it would not be fair to attack 

 one among so many to which this applies. 

 The young peasants came into the institu- 

 tion, but not in overwhelming numbers. They 

 were carefully selected, and this made each feel 

 so much better than the neighbours, which is 

 always precious in Ireland. The whole cost of 

 keeping and " educating them " came out of public 

 money, with a substantial contribution from the 

 parents also, though the public money was enough, 

 and estimated on the principle that the parents 

 should have to make no sacrifice beyond giving 

 up the help of their young folk at home. 

 Officially, the scheme undertook to prepare them 

 in "a year or two, for yet higher privileges, in a 



161 L 



