160 



Villages in favourable situations. The co-operation of proprietors may 

 be sought for by an offer to contribute a portion of the cost of the two 

 first villages that shall be built in approved localities, and according to 

 approved plans. 



Forty houses, affording sufficient accommodation for as many families 



may be constructed for 20 each, 800 



A house and sheds for salt and fishing stores, common to all, . . 200 



1,000 



To each bouse tliere should be appended an allotment of a small portion 

 of land. 



The co-operation of the National Board of Education may we presume 

 be counted on, and these little establishments may become sources of 

 useful training as well as of relief. We entertain very sanguine expec- 

 tations that one or two such examples would, if well arranged, become 

 objects of imitation; we have long felt the difficulty of introducing 

 improved habits among a scattered peasantry whose pursuits were not 

 especially directed to one object; this plan seems to us the cheapest 

 and best mode of trying the experiment. The benefits resulting from 

 the plan of Agricultural Instruction would naturally suggest the value 

 of similar efforts for the introduction of improved modes of taking and 

 preserving fish. It may be well deserving of consideration how far 

 poor law unions in maritime districts may be permitted to co-operate 

 in such objects as we propose. The cost of a family for a year in the 

 Workhouse would place them in an independent position for life. From 

 that admirable measure the Laud Improvement Act, 10 Vic., c. 32, 

 the construction of buildings for farm purposes has perhaps very wisely 

 been excluded;* but there are vast tracts of land upon our shores that 

 are wholly unsuited for agriculture, but that present upon their 

 margins abundant sources of food and wealth, which can never be 

 available without habitations. Such establishments as we have sug- 

 gested may perhaps be considered a legitimate object for limited aid, 

 under the terms of the Act, if altered or amended. It could not be 

 expected, nor indeed would it be desirable, that more than a portion, 

 say one-half or two-thirds, of the necessary funds should be charged on 

 the land, and it may fairly be spread over a limited period, say ten 

 years. Without some such exertions, we greatly fear that many parts 

 of the shores of Ireland will never cease to be barren wastes. 



MAEKETS FOR CURED FISH. ^Our experience in the conversion of the 

 produce of the curing stations has convinced us, that in order to remuner- 

 ate adventurers in the fisheries, it is not enough to buy fish, and to cure 

 it very well. We have generally experienced the greatest difficulty 

 in obtaining a sale at paying prices for the fish at all our stations. The 

 intense poverty of the country, and the prejudice against the use of salt 

 fish without the potato, have no doubt greatly increased the difficulty; 

 but we find that our Scotch neighbours make a similar complaint. In 

 the last Report of the Commissioners, for the British Fisheries, printed 

 by order of Parliament, on the 19th March last, we find they state, 

 " the unprecedented and ruinous condition of the Irish market for cured 

 herrings, where they were almost unsaleable at any price, the Com- 



* However, see "Ireland and the Plantation Scheme," by James Caird, 

 chap. xii. Edinburgh, 8vo, 1850. 



