NOT A MERE FARM

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 147, 19 December 1933, Page 11

NOT A MERE FARM

THE REAL IRELAND

TURNING TO INDUSTRY

MINING AND POWER

Ireland, once a land of woe and famine, today seems ■ well on tho road to perpetual prosperity. Though temporarily set back by the world-wido depression, like every other land, it now is -waking in the greying dawn of a new day, writes "Whitlcy Noble in a New York paper. Thinking- men of both tho Irish. Free State and of Northern Ireland have come to the realisation at last that Ireland must no longer depond almost entiroly on agriculture. They know now that their snug island must produce something more than just farm, crops if their people aro to be self-sustaining to any appreciable degree. So Ireland has followed the example set by England and Continental countries. It has turned to industry and' to the machine age to fill the gaps left open by agriculture. It is true that Ireland probably always will remain principally an agricultural country, but it is also true that i today throughout the width and breadth of tho island industry is taking firm root. Tho average reader may get tho impression from travel books and articles that Ireland is wholly a, land of pastures and bogs; that all of the homes of tlic people are squat hovels roofed with thatch; that the only sounds to be heard thei'p are tho lowing of the herds and tho bleat of straying flocks. } But that is a misconception of true conditions, for in Ireland there are many busy cities. There aro innumerable factories with smoking chimneys. There aro huge shipyards, vast textilo plants, many miles of railways and shipping canals, and .mammoth electric power plants. The clatter of the automatic riveter, the factory whistle's shriek, and the snort of tho steam shovel today are heard nearly as often as the moo of tho barnyard cow. FALL IN POPULATION. In 1545 thero were 8,300,000 people in Iroland, and ntore than three-fourths of them depended on tho potato crop for their existence. Tho potato crop failed that year, and Iroland experenced its worst famine in history. By 1851 the population had been reduced by a high death rate and emigration to 6,600,000. From then on until recent times tho population steadily declined, until it reached a low mark of 4,227,000, the figure set by tho last Census taken on tho island. .Nearly 3,000,000 of these inhabitants dwell in the Irish Free State. But oyon with this reduced population, men with vision in Ireland have known for some timo that Ireland nO longer could afford to havo "all of its eggs in ono basket." Fertile farms, it is true, produce wealth in a land, but Ireland no longer will risk everything against the possibility of crop failures.

Ireland's chief industrial problem up until a decado ago was tho lack of fuel for tho production of power. Though fully one-seventh of tho Irish Freo State is covered with peat bogs, reaching to a depth of 45ft in places and guaranteeing a supply of peat for tho future of inoro than four million tons, this type of fuel is used only for domestic purposes, and no methods have been found to convert it into efficient steam coal. Coal'resources in Ireland arc extremely scanty, and it has been necessary to import the greater part of the coal used in Ireland's factories. THE SHANNON SCHEME. But clever Irishmen have got round this problem of a. lack of industrial fuel by harnessing, their historical old liver, the Shannon; Prom time to time small hydto-eleetvie projects have been ■ developed at various points ■on the island, but it was not' until 1924 that the great Shannon, project was launched. The Irish Free State turned the Shannon project into a state enterprise in 1925, The 100 ft fall of the Shannon from Lough DCrg to the sea has been used for-the creation of electric power by diverting the water of the rivef and conducting it through a headrace canal) ?i miles long, to Ardnacfusha, the site of - the principal power plant. Eventually the Ardnaerusha power plant will produce 180,000 horse-power of electrical energy. A super-power network is planned to cover the Whole of the Free State. Four big transformer statioos have been constructed or projected. The sites for these are Dublin, Maryborough, Cork, and Waterford. The Free State today demands 52,000,000 kilowatt hours of electrical power annually, and this demand is expected to incfoase considerably each year. Dublin alone takes 20,000,000 kilowatt-hours annually, and the Dublin tramways require 15,000,000 kilowatttiours, to it can be seen that. > much of the manufacturing of tho Free State is centred in the capital. Most of-"tha factories oi Dublin aro Tather small,as compared with the great industrial establishments in England or America, but the products of the Dublin plants aro widely diversified in character. ' - THE INDUSTEIAL NORTH. Moro than £23,000,000 is invested in the Manufacturing plants of the Free State, and in normal times ap^ proximately 250,000 people are employed in its industries. The Free State* biggeat single industry is brewing and malting. Shoes and boots, electrical appliances, hardware, hats, farm tools, and household accessories aro among the other products of that division of Ireland.

Northern Ireland is even more important today as a manufacturing centre than is the tfi'oo State. At Belfast are some of the greatest shipyards iv the world. In tlioso shipyards some of the moat magnificent transatlantic liners have been built. Northern Ireland also is famous for its textile plants, more than onO'third of the World's flax-spinning capacity being located in that region. In normal times nearly 100,000 persons are employed in the linen plants of Belfast and other cities of Northern Ireland. Brewing and distilling arc carried on to a large extent in .those cities.

Ireland offers a promising field for mining Engineers and mining companies, for there are known to be rich deposits of copper, zinc, lead, artd gypsum in the island that havo been worked scarcely at all. Ireland is adequately supplied with railroads for its present needs, but increased industrial activity is likely to necessitate more lines. The Free State alone has 3500 mileS of tracks and about 650 miles of canals.