IRISH FREE STATE

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17994, 12 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

IRISH FREE STATE

A Dublin correspondent of the New York Tmes writes: — The vital statistics just published by the Irish Free State Ministry for Industry and Commerce have sprung some surprises which are not altogether pleasant or reassuring from a national viewpoint. Since the middle of last century the population has declined at a rate without parallel in any country. While this may largely be accounted for by emigration, certain disquieting facts regarding matrimonial conditions in the Free State are disclosed by the census figures which cannot be so readily explained. The proportion of unmarried to married people in Southern Ireland is the highest of any country in the w'°rld. Virtually onequarter of the Free State’s adult male population is made up of bachelors, while the percentage of unmarried women is the highest in the world. It is calculated that one out of every four women living in the twenty-six counties never marries and the death rates are higher for the unmarried than for the married, while widows live 1 (ingest. It is also curious to find that the" Free Slate is the only country in the world where the expectation of life from the age of i year to 22 years is shorter for females than for males. According to the census returns, Irish girls have a chance of marrying three times better than have girls in America, it will lie interesting to see if this disclosure will result in a sudden increase of the number of women emigrants, but the tendency for both sexes appears to be to postpone marriage until comparatively late in life. •Of the women in the Free State between 25 and 30 years of age no less than 62 per cent are single, as compared with 23 per cent in the United States, and the proportion of unmarried men of the same ages reaches the abnormally high figure of 80 per cent, for the Free State as against only 39 per cent, for America. Large Famines Persist. The average age for marrying here is given as 35 for men and 29 for women. Though marriage takes place at a later age than elsewhere, the old tradition of large families Ls maintained, as married women have nearly twice as many children as those of either America or England, but they are fewer, and the lower number of marriages has kept the birthrate down.

The unsatisfactory position in regard to matrimony disclosed by' the census has given rise to much speculation regarding its cause. In some quarters it is attributed to the high cost of living and to the low wage rates, coupled wfth a lack of housing accommodation. But whatever the reason may' be, it is clear that young people nowadays consider discretion the better part of valour and postpone the responsibilities of married life till a sporting chance of economic stability is in sight-

But few and late marriages are not a healthy sign for any nation and perhaps some future government may yet resort to the drastic alternative of State endowment of motherhood as the speediest way out of the difficulty if the situation does not improve. This course is not unlikely to find favour with the present administration, though several measures of social reform appear on the legislative programme for this session. They include one aiming at the prevention of infanticide, which has increased alarmingly in the Free State in recent years. Bootlegging Well Organised. Smashing defeat of the dry candidates in the Northern Ireland elections lost May justified Viscount Craigavon’s view that the demand of the Protestant churches for a measure of local option lacked popular backing. Unfortunately, it appears only too obvious that the organisers who finance the manufacture of illicit whisky in the six counties and their agents who distribute the liquor, can rely on popular support to a degree that is highly embarrassing to tho government not only from the point of view of morality .but of revenue also. During the last six years the duty paid on spirits in Ulster has fallen by more than £600,000,

HAS HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF UNMARRIED WOMEN IN THE WORLD. BOOTLEGGERS REAP A RICH HARVEST.

This fact has sometimes been quoted as proof that the consumption of liquor was decreasing at a rate that proved it would be feasible lo enforce prohibition on the American model. But all the experts are now agreed that while there is less drinking than in pre-war day's, poteen makers arc selling more barrels of their liquor than they' did bottles some years ago. It is notorious that in many rural districts three-quarters cf the amount of spirits consumed have paid no duty and that the boot logging end of the trade is so well organised that poteen is finding a big market in the towns.

In a recent Armagh prosecution a prominent church worker was convicted for having poteen In his possession and a police officer stated that a search had unearthed a still which was known to have been worked by one of the preachers. It is expected Northern Ireland will . follow the example of the Free State, which prohibits the sale of treacle, yeast, sugar and cattle cake in poteen areas except under license. Southern republicans insist the only real hope of dealing adequately with the evil is to reduce the duty on spirits. Undoubtedly, . the big increase in duty during the war did more than anything else to revive poteen making, and tho immunity enjoyed by lawbreakers during the revolutionary chaos oaused the practice to spread to areas that had formerly been free I from taint. I The old style poteen, distilled from 1 barley, was a drinkable if heady liquor, but the modern kind is the worst typo of fire water and finds favour in tho North and South because In addition to being cheaper, it lias more bite that what is known as “ Parliament ” whisky.