788 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION V. 



no practical means of compelling local bodies or officers to do their duties under 

 Parts I. and II. of the Acts. As to Part III. (giving power to local authorities 

 to build, let, and manage workmen's houses), reasons were given to show that the 

 problem is much too large for local bodies to solve by construction schemes ; that 

 the burden on the rates would be prohibitive, and a partial attempt thus to 

 provide houses would deter private efi'ort and would lead, in the end, to a further 

 deficiency of houses. The Bill of this Session, ' Housing of the Working Classes 

 (Ireland) Bill,' was criticised. A subsidy of 190,000/. of public money is given 

 by the Bill. The basis of the proposal that municipalities should undertake the 

 task of providing cheap houses for the working classes is letting at low and 

 unremunerative rents. How should the gap be filled ? It was argued that 

 the functions of local bodies should be mainly regulative and preventive — i.e., 

 removal of nuisances, insanitary buildings, securing light, air, water, cleanlines.s, 

 &c., but not the construction and supply of new houses. These functions 

 might include compulsory purchase of sites, but should otherwise be mainly dis- 

 housing, not housing. State aid might well, under certain conditions, be t-afely 

 given to private eli'ort in rebuilding where sites are cleared. If these regulative 

 functions are to be generally used and eii'ective, there must be a control of the 

 local bodies and a more thorough and efficient inspection. Examination was 

 made of the principles of the new Ruglish Housing Bill — a Government measure, 

 not, however, applicable to Ireland (Housing and Town Planning Bill, brought in 

 by Mr. John Burns). It was argued that the principles of that Bill might well 

 be .adapted to Ireland. 



The plan of providing houses for labourers in Ireland through local bodies, 

 under the Labourers Acts, however justifiable as an improvement or example, 

 cannot solve the whole problem, but may seriously hinder the final solution of the 

 main part of it. The economic and financial results of these Acts were outlined 

 and compared with the area of problem to be solved as illustrated by statistics. 

 The author dealt with the results of past working of the Labourers Acts and 

 the possible elfect of the new schemes proposed under the Act of 190C, specially 

 noticing financial consequences and the efi'ect on the rates, and traced the 

 economic outcome with reference to the supply of labour and the relation 

 between labourer and larmev. The present policy was contrasted with that 

 of schemes of migration and the compulsory paring down of large holdings 

 recently proposed. It was argued that the rational and equitable policy was to 

 make the employer of labour and owner of insanitary property supply proper 

 houses for workmen and tenant; and that the State should step in only in the 

 last resort. The owner of insanitary property now goes free, or benefits by getting 

 cheap houses paid for out of the rates. The need of enforcement of the Public 

 Health Acts was emphasised, and also that loans .^hould be given to the owner 

 or employer under certain conditions, the local body being the intermediary, and 

 the rates the security to the Government for the loan. The author urged the 

 need for a more central system of medical inspection and for power to compel 

 local bodies to inspect and enforce abatement of nuisances, &c. It was contended 

 that the State should not embark on a poli(;y of supplying houses out of public 

 mcncy, unless it can supply a!l who have equal claims. 



3. The Depopulation of Ireland. By Robert H. Murray, M.A, 



From 3801 to 18 16 the population of Ireland steadily increased, while from 

 1817 to the present time it has just as steadily diminished. The year of the 

 great famine marks a dividing line in Irish history. Before 1846 the agriculture 

 of this country was largely of the tillage order, while since that date it has 

 assumed the pastoral form. 



The dominant influence in Irish industrial history for the early forty-five years 

 of the nineteenth century was Foster's Corn Law. It ^is not perhaps an over- 

 statement to say that no Act so profoundly modified our history as the far- 

 reaching measure brought forward by Foster in 1784. Its author modelled it ou 



