(3)_The development of the Industries of the Country_.  That has of course taken various forms, of which only a few can be mentioned here.  By the Light Railways (for which the country has to thank Mr. Balfour himself) remote and hitherto inaccessible districts have been brought into touch with the rest of the world; and by an expenditure of L2,106,000 the railway mileage of Ireland has been increased from 2,643 miles in 1890 to 3,391 in 1906.  Then it is hardly too much to say that the Labourers’ Cottages Act, and the grants made under it, have transformed the face of the country.

By this Act, District Councils are enabled, in localities where accommodation for labourers is insufficient, to take land compulsorily and erect cottages, the money advanced by the Government for the purpose being gradually repaid by the ratepayers.  The wretched hovels which were the disgrace of Ireland from the dawn of history until a period within living memory, have almost disappeared; and comfortable, sanitary and pleasing dwellings have taken their place.

Even this excellent Act, however, is now used by the Nationalists to further their own objects.  One instance may suffice.  In 1907 a farmer fell under the ban of the League and was ordered to be boycotted.  The District Council found that one occupant of a “Labourer’s Cottage” disregarded the order and continued to work for the boycotted farmer.  They promptly evicted him.  What would be said in England if a Tory landlord evicted a cottager for working for a Radical farmer?

But even more important than these measures has been the establishment of the Department of Agriculture.  The success of this has been due to the ability, energy and unselfishness of Sir Horace Plunkett.  The main object of the Department was to instruct the farming classes in the most effective methods of agriculture and the industries connected with it.  This by itself would have been a great work; but Sir Horace has also founded the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, to encourage co-operative organization amongst farmers, based on the principle of mutual help; and the success of this, worked in conjunction with the Department, has been marvellous.  More than nine hundred local societies have been established, for the promotion of industries such as dairying and poultry farming; co-operative credit banks have been formed, based on what is known in Germany as the Raffeisen system.  The turnover of these societies in 1908 amounted to more than L2,250,000.  Agricultural Organization Societies, in imitation of the Irish one, have been formed in England and Scotland; and so far did its fame reach that the Americans sent over an agent to enquire into its working.