70 



ECONOMIC DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION. 



To bring the figures roughly together, so as to show what portion of the 

 increase of non-producers may be satisfactory or not unreasonable, and what 

 portion must, as I think, be considered unsatisfactory, I submit the following 

 table. The difference in condition and industrial utility between the small 

 dealers and general labourers and the undefined class is probably very slight, 

 and for this purpose they may be counted together : — 



Table C- 



-Showing Transfer of Employed from Productive to Non-Prod uctive Industry 

 between 1841 and 1881. 



Although this calculation must be accepted with very great reserve, it 

 may yet give us a fair idea of the extent to which Ireland, besides its great 

 decrease in numbers, has also deteriorated in the quality of work performed 

 by those who remain. It shows us that since 1841 more than 14 per cent, 

 of the employed population have been transferred from direct production to 

 occupations which can at best add little to the wealth of the community. 



In confirmation of this, if we turn to the details of those who figure under 

 the head of Manufacture, we find only one occupation which has increased 

 considerably in per-centage, while on the whole there has been so great a 

 decrease ; this is under the heading Dress ; and going into further detail we 

 find that in Dress it is the shirtmakers only who have increased in numbers, 

 viz., from 47,300 to 71,000; so that once more it is only in the last refuge 

 of destitute women that we find any increase. 



A detailed review of productive industry in Ireland, to which we will now 

 return, will show us more closely where the falling off has occurred. 



The decrease in those employed in Agriculture, though affecting each 



