IRISH ENTERPRISES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19195, 8 December 1925, Page 12

IRISH ENTERPRISES.

— ———- FOREIGNERS IN FREE STATE. SHANNON SCHEME TROUBLES GERMANS TO BUILD HOUSES. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] DUBLIN, Oct. 80.. Labour troubles in the Free State have reached a crisis. In pre-trcaty days, those who were known as loyalists understood that the aim and object of Sinn Fein was to get rid of the. foreigner and to keep Ireland for the Irish, but now we find that the, Free State, instead of being a land richly endowed and ready for Irishmen to develop, is tho home of foreigners, so much so that there is nothing left for Irishmen to do. Contracts have been made with Germans to carry out the hydro-electric development, of the Irish Free State and to build 250 artisans' dwellings in the heart of the city of Dublin, and also with Frenchmen to keep the streets of that city clean, while Belgians are to take charge of tho beet-growing industry. The principal bandmaster of the Free • State Army is an ex-colonel of the German Army. Already there are hundreds of Germans; with their wives and families, in Limerick, where they are housed and provided with work at the expense of i the Irish people, in spite of the heavy unemployment list in the country. Irish labour is sorely disgruntled and things are looking far from pleasant throughout tho Saorstat. a Deadlock Over Wages. The strike in connection with the Shannon scheme shows no sign of coming to a satisfactory conclusion. The fault- lies, plainly, with the Ministry for Industry and Commerce, the department which supplied the wages figures to Messrs. Siemens. Unskilled labourers, instead of being offered the local rate of Is Id an hour, were offered only Bd. When the Irish Transport Workers' Union called tho workers off, ex-national soldiers took their place for a few days, i when they joined forces with the Irish transport workers and refused to carry on. Later the steamer Arabia, conveying the materials for the building of tho workmen's buildings, arrived, and the i dockers refused to unload her cargo. The j German engineers and mechanics already ! in Limerick were compelled to do the ; work themselves. Messrs. Siemens Schuckert have now | advertised for workmen. at the rate of 23s 6d a week, free lodgings to be provided with a canteen close by the workers' houses, where they can purchase groceries, etc., at a moderate charge, but j the contractors have stipulated that they ! will provide breakfast, dinner, and tea I for the workers, and deduct 12s 6d a |. week from the wages of the men. These terms the workers have refused to accept. Ihe labour leaders have offered to meet the contractors on more than one occasion, but Siemens have refused to enter into any negotiations or to make an effort to brijjg the strike to an end. Rebuilding Sackville Street. , Some time ago, an American syndicate announced its intention of rebuilding the hotels in Upper Sackville Street, which were destroyed during the trouble in 1922, but as nothing was done in the matter the Gresham Company has now announced its intention of erecting a new building on the old Gresham site. The building will lie of steel frame construction with reinforced concrete floors, roof and staircases, and the outside face with Ballyknockan granite (obtained jrom the quarries just outside Dublin) and Portland stone. The hotel has been designed by Mr. 11. Atkinson, of London, and is to be completed within 12 months at a cost of £70,000. It is also announced that another Dublin firm, intends opening a large hotel in Grafton Street, tho principal business street of the city, at a cost- of £IOO,OOO. 'J he first consignments of materials from Germany for the construction of artisians" dwellings in Dublin have reached the Dublin quayside, and with them have arrived a number of German engineers and skilled workers, very few of whom can speak English. To make things pleasant and easy for them an interpreter has been appointed. Ho is an ox British service man who was a prisoner in Germany for some months and can speak German fluently. British Officer Tops the Poll. The election of members to the Free Stale Senate took place on September 17 and although it was announced that no results would be published until December fun returns of members elected have already been published. On the whole the election was most unsatisfactory. Out of the whole population of eligible voters, i only 25 per cent, exorcised their right. Little or no interest war, displayed in the proceedings, with the result that men who ! would have been of some use in the Senate nave lost their seats, and almost unknown men have been returned. ! General Hiekie, late of the Roval Dublin ■ Fusiliers, was the first man to j gain the quota; he is one of, the few deserving success, but 1 it. is strange that the representative of tho j ex-British servicemen should gain first, j place in a Free State election. Three i well-known Dublin medical men also j gained their seats. Sir Arthur Chance, Sir i W. Coey .Bigger, and Surgeon Barmvillo. j On tho other hand, the Senate has lost j some of its most useful members, for out I of the 19 retiring members only seven were re-elected, among those who lost their seats being Mr. Samuel Brown, K.C., one of Dublin's leading counsel. Natural Wealth Revealed.

Great interest lias befcn aroused by the report that an immense deposit of phosphates has been found at Noughaville and Kilfonora, in the County Glare. The outcrop its reported to extend for a full mile along the main road, and the phosphate rock is- described as from 3ft. to 12ft. thick throughout the entire length. .An expert has examined the deposit and an analysis lias been made by one of the professors of Trinity College, which shows that the rook contains 75.4 per cent, of phosphates. If the deposit is as extensive and as rich as represented it must prove of immense value, and should mean the start of a great fertiliser industry. 'Another big development scheme has been launched in the Free State, the promoters in this case being English! A company is being formed with the object of utilising the mineral substance baryt.es, enormous deposits of which -exist in the County Sligo. Barytes, which abounds in many parts of Ireland, particularly in the south and west, is used in the manufacture of paint instead of white lead, and in the manufacture of enamel, cotton cloth, potteries, linoleum,, rubber and explosives, as well as in the chemical trade. Owing to the shortage of high-grade production at home large quantities of barytes yrro imported into Great Britain. In Franco the use of white lead is forbidden, so that the proposed new company entertains a confident hope that not only will it be in a' position to supply the home demand, but that it will have a large surplus for export to France and Great Britain. ' It is proposed to begin operations at. Glenear, about eight miles from Sligo,. where barytes is obtained in enormous quantities.