HOMES AND WAGES 155 



met except by a rebate, so to speak, of some 

 86 per cent, of the income due to the State. 

 In other words the national exchequer makes 

 an annual present to the people of Ireland of 

 81,000. The changes effected by this bold 

 finance are wonderful : it is not an exaggera- 

 tion to say that the face of rural Ireland has 

 been transfigured. The neat, well-built, slate- 

 roofed homes which have taken the place of 

 Ireland's squalid hovels have given fresh hope 

 and encouragement to the agricultural popu- 

 lation and the exhausting flow of emigration 

 is at length checked. 



Why then in the face of these manifold 

 blessings conferred on Ireland by wise and 

 humane laws, should the cry of the English 

 villager continue to be a vox clamantis in 

 deserto ? The three real obstacles to a satis- 

 factory scheme of rural housing have been, 

 the absence of adequate funds, the obstinate 

 hostility of local authorities and the unwilling- 

 ness of legislators to alienate the goodwill of 

 the propertied classes. But power must 

 inevitably pass from the hands of those who 

 admit such limitations. The opposition of 

 local councils who are not really representative 

 of the districts must be swept aside by central 

 authorities who " mean business." The solu- 

 tion of our rural housing problem is a matter 



