56 



REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



a number of balance sheets were printed showing the income and 

 expenditure of families in the congested districts. The total 

 income from every source in the poorest districts sometimes did 

 not exceed £15 a year. 



Such was the material upon which the Board had to work. 

 Wide powers were needed for the development of these districts, 

 and wide powers were granted — embracing three departments of 

 industry, agriculture, fishing, and home industries. The develop- 

 ment of agriculture necessitated the amalgamation of uneconomic 

 holdings, and this involved the migration of farmers from one 

 district to another, a task of the utmost difficulty in the West of 

 Ireland, where the people stick to their native soil with great 



LADY SUPERIOR (LEFT) OF THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES OF MARY, 

 LOUGHGLYNN 



tenacity. But it meant more than that. It meant the application 

 of science to all farming operations, a difficult enough work in a 

 district where half the people could neither read nor write. 

 The development of fishing necessitated better boats, better piers, 

 better railway facilities. The development of home industries 

 included pretty much the development of everything that made 

 life tolerable, and was not included in agriculture and fisheries. 

 Intimately connected with all three branches of industry was the 

 making of roads and bridges, without which much of the other 

 work accomplished would have been useless. 



For the effective discharge of its multifarious duties, the Board 

 had placed at its disposal a fixed income of £41,250, being interest 

 at 2| per cent, on the Church Surplus Grant. There was also 



