THE DECLINE OF ULSTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8410, 12 November 1912, Page 6

THE DECLINE OF ULSTER.

Many New Zealanders may be asking —•"' What is this so-called province oi „ .. that is flaunting its Red Hand, in connection, with the flome,Rule Bill niid speaking as though it alone in the whole United Kingdom were loyal to the Crown ?'■' " Protestant Ulster," we sometimes hear it called; but it is really little more than half Protestant. It is assumed to he opposed to Home Bule, but it has been in the -habit of "returning as many Nationalist as Unionist members to Parliament. It is praised as the only progressive part of Ireland, yet recent statistics show that its population is declining. A decrease . of 1130 in the population of Ulster during the ten, years beginning 1901 i? shown in a recontly-issued Blue Book, the total, according to the census last year, being 1,581.686. The number of Roman Catholics resident in the province was 690,816. or 43.7 per cent. &' the total population. The number *—'' Wrsons in reqeipt of relief under th-f» Poor-Law system was 15,113, or one in 105 of the population, as comparer' "with one m every 86 at the previous census. '> '-VJ?- have every respect for tV >iebple of Ulster: but (a's ■nerllaps inigVtt be fi expected in IrfilanrTi its penplo fpv-. nenr +o bo "a bundle of contradictions." ' " -