158 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



his annual payment/ In principle, no exception 

 can be taken to such provisions in Ireland. Since 

 public money has been advanced for the artificial 

 creation of a peasant proprietorship, it is also in 

 the public interest to keep control over the 

 execution of the measure. It is another question 

 whether these res^ulations can reallv be carried 

 out, and whether they are not treating symptoms 

 rather than causes. Subdivision of farms in 

 Ireland is not so much the consequence of laws 

 of equal inheritance — it sprang rather from the 

 fact that but for the soil a father had nothing 

 which he could leave to his children. 



This situation remains no better to-day. On 

 the contrary, through the abolition of the great 

 landed properties there will be lessened demand 

 for labour. The demand for industrial labour, 

 except in certain districts, has grown but little. 

 When the younger children cannot get land they 

 will migrate from the rural districts. This 

 process is already going on. It has indeed gone 

 so far that in many districts the large farmers 

 suffer from want of labour. The labourer will 

 not engage himself for the wages which they 

 offer, particularly as the Irishman does not 

 willingly take service with those of his own class. 

 Thus lack of demand for labour and lack of 

 supply run along on parallel lines. The result is 

 an emigration from the country which robs it 



^ Section 54 (3) and (4). 



