Aontuím leis an run.
Ceist curtha agus aontuithe.
The Report circulated to Teachtaí was as follows:
A Brief Survey of the Work done by the Department of Agriculture.
(April 1919 to June 1921).
Presented to the First Session of the Second Dáil, 16th August, 1921,
By Art O'Connor, Deputy for South Kildare, Substitute Minister for Agriculture.
To the President and Deputies of the Second Dáil.
Mr. President and Deputies,
I have the honour to present to you this brief survey of the work done by the Department of Agriculture from April, 1919, to the present date. In this survey I have attempted nothing more than a short and cursory outline of the history of the Department since its inception. I give little detail here of its struggles, its attempts, and its achievements in the face of many grave and formidable obstacles; some of these matters will be recorded more minutely in a comprehensive Report which, at the moment, is being prepared. However, every outstanding event and performance of the Department will be found duly set down in this synopsis.
PART I.
Nomination of the Ministers or Directors and the Establishment of the Ministers and Directorates.—The First Session of the First Dáil was held on the 21st January, 1919, while a great number of the Deputies were in British prisons, but it was not until the following April when the majority of the imprisoned Deputies were released that the President was elected and the Ministers and Directors nominated by him in accordance with his constitutional powers.
On 1st April, 1919, the Deputy for East Clare and East Mayo, Mr. Eamon de Valera, was elected President of the Dáil, and next day he nominated 7 Ministers and 2 Directors, one of the latter being Commandant R.C. Barton, the Deputy for West Wicklow, who was made Director or Minister of Agriculture.
PART II.
Administration of Commandant Barton, T.D.
CHAPTER I. Land Aquisition Schemes. Commandant Barton's administration extended over ten months, and was terminated by his unfortunate arrest by the enemy at a time when he had just got the Department well under way. He devoted most of his energy to devising a Land Settlement Scheme and setting up of a Loan Fund in connection with same. The Decree (1919) authorising the Scheme declared that:
"The provision of Land for the agricultural population now deprived thereof is decreed, and a Loan Fund under the authority of the Dáil may be established to aid this purpose."
Later the Draft Scheme was submitted to the August Session, and it was finally presented and adopted in its amended form at the October Session of the same year. The scheme and its operations has now extended over the entire country. Within the brief span of its existence it has made remarkable headway, and has become firmly rooted in the life of the nation. It has proved its worth and need, and will be a lasting monument to the ability, courage, and imagination of Commandant Barton.
CHAPTER II. Forestry. A Decree of the 18th June, 1919, made November 1st National Arbor Day, and authorised the appointment of a National Inspector of Forestry. A sum of £1,000 was voted "to be appropriated for the purposes of the present year." The result of this Decree was that a Committee on Forestry was formed by Commandant Barton early in July, 1919. This Committee held many meetings during the summer, and towards the end of that August it appointed Mr. W.L. Cole, Inspector of Forestry. Mr. Cole's appointment was in due course sanctioned by the Ministry, and he proceeded to organise the country and carry out arrangements for the successful celebration of Arbor Day.
In June, 1920, Mr. Cole reported in connection with the organisation of Arbor Day, 1919, as follows:
"My work began towards the end of last August. Some ten weeks only were available to circularise the whole country, get all the Cumainn to work, stir up the County and Urban Councils, write to all educational institutions in rural districts, to each School Manager and all Clergymen in ditto, to Societies interested in Forestry, and to call forth and reply to endless queries and problems that arose in individual instances. The main result is that in practically every case the work was got in hand, and, as nearly as we can reckon, some 250,000 to 300,000 trees were planted."
Considering the shortage of time and the harassing circumstances which prevailed at that period, this, it will be admitted, was a praiseworthy achievement, especially when it is recollected that the entire organisation was done on the small net outlay of £70. Mr. Cole also distributed throughout the country some 50,000 leaflets of an informative and educational nature, and arranged for lantern lectures on the subject.
Mr. Cole only undertook the office of Forestry Inspector up to Arbor Day, 1919, at the express wish of Mr. Barton. Business affairs and personal responsibilities prevented him from continuing this important work.
CHAPTER III. Labour Disputes bearing on Agricultural Affairs. The Department of Agriculture has occasion to get in touch with the Department of Labour frequently regarding disputes between employers and employees, which arise out of, or have a bearing on, Agricultural affairs. In the early days of the Dáil, before the work of the various Departments became well defined, a Labour Committee was set up by the Ministry with Alderman Tom Kelly, then substitute Minister of Labour, as Chairman. Commandant Barton and myself were members of this Committee. During Commandant Barton's regime only one grave dispute of an agricultural nature came before us. This was the dispute in Co. Kildare between the farmers who were members of the Irish Farmers' Union and the farm labourers who were members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union.
The disagreement between these parties arose on points affecting wages, hours, and conditions of employment. It was important, as it was the first of its kind ever tackled by us, and as it appeared to be rapidly assuming a serious character. The Committee failed to get the Co. Kildare members of the Farmers' Union to come before a Conciliation Board which had been recently set up; and I was deputed by the Ministry to enquire into the matter personally and endeavour to settle it. My efforts, coupled with those of the Deputy for North Kildare (Mr. Buckley), were fortunately successful, and a menace which at the time threatened to spread was happily ended.
CHAPTER IV.—Food, Produce, Stock, and Agricultural Industries.—In the fall of 1919, the Agricultural Committee which Commandant Barton formed to watch the various phases of agriculture until the Department became properly staffed, advised the Minister to issue a warning through the Irish Press on the subject of Food Scarcity. The warning was duly issued and was printed by a large number of provincial papers. It had the effect of causing farmers to retain for themselves a larger than normal proportion of their produce for home consumption.
About the same time, the Acting-President (Mr. Arthur Griffith, T.D.), at the request of the Minister of Trade and Commerce (Mr. Ernest Blythe, T.D.), then under arrest, instructed Commandant Barton to take over the work of the Department of Trade and Commerce in connection with the Dressed Meat & Packing Industry, towards which the Ministry had voted £200. The development of this most important project engaged a good deal of the Minister's time prior to his arrest. A circular was issued pointing out of the manifold advantages of the scheme, and calling attention to the remarkable fact that every year we export from this country 800,000 fat and store cattle and 650,000 sheep and lambs at a value of £21,000,000. "By purchasing in Ireland," states the circular, "£21,000,000 worth of raw material the English promote an almost unending chain of industries subsidiary to that of dressing the meat and preparing it for consumption." In another pamphlet issued by the Department of Trade and Commerce, the history of the famous Wexford Co-Operative Dressed Meat Factory was briefly traced. This factory commenced in 1912 with a paid-up capital of only £1,500. "By September of that year," says the pamphlet, "9,000 had been applied for and £7,000 paid up. At present the capital of this Society is £18,500, held by 2,900 shareholders. The growth of this Society's business is very clearly shown by the fact that its sales have risen from £34,000 in 1912, and £67,000 in 1913 to £235,000 in 1919, and actually £250,000 in the first six months of 1919."
About the same time, the Minister of Industries (Professor McNeill, T.D.), issued a Departmental Report in which he drew attention to the grave danger of a Meat Trust on American lines springing up in this country with the levers of control in the hands of British absentee directors, which, if left unchallenged, would ultimately kill all national and local endeavour on those lines.
Later, in order to push forward this Dressed Meat project, brimful of such vast possibilities, and to wreck at the birth of the industry anything in the nature of a foreign capitalistic monopoly, the Minister of Trade and Commerce became busy on a Co-Operative Dressed Meat Factory for Waterford. This scheme was going ahead very successfully till the destruction of creameries and industrial concerns by the British forces last year made its postponement advisable.
PART III.
Administration of Art O'Connor, T.D.
CHAPTER I.—My Appointment as Minister-Substitute.—After the arrest of Commandant Barton, there was an interregnum for three months in agricultural affairs. Although I undertook, at the request of the Ministry, a mission to Kerry in the early February of 1920, it was not until the 15th of the following April that I was officially invested with Commandant Barton's office in the Department of Agriculture.
CHAPTER II.—The Land Trouble in the South and West.
Section 1.—The Trouble in the County Kerry.—It is necessary for me to go back some months prior to my appointment in order to trace accurately from its very first moments the great Land trouble which broke out and raged with such vehemence over the south and west last year. During the winter and early spring of the season 1919-20, trouble arose between labourers and farmers in several parts of the country; but in the Co. Kerry the trouble shortly became serious and showed signs of developing along very ugly lines.
I was deputed by the Ministry to proceed to the Co. Kerry and investigate the matter first hand. I found a grave state of affairs prevailing especially in the northern part of the county. A dispute had arisen over the demand of the labourers for additional land, and hence it was not really a wage but a land trouble. This demand had not been made in just the nicest way, and, as a result, the farmers absolutely refused to entertain it. Feeling rapidly grew so bitter that both sides resorted to boycotting, the sending of threatening letters, the burning of houses and crops, and other forms of lawlessness. The commotion showed all the symptoms of finally taking the form of a civil war of a kind which would have undoubtedly spread to the calmer parts of the country, and probably in the ultimate, from small beginnings, involve the Government itself in general ruin. Farmers would shoot into labourers' houses one night, and the next night the labourers would resort to reprisals of a similar nature. There was no loss of life, although there were a number of persons wounded by gunshot.
I interviewed the representatives of the farmers and the labourers, to both of whom I talked very straight on their duty to the State; fortunately, each side vied in its loyalty to the Republic, and the situation became perceptibly easier before I left.
Having seen the leading public men of the infected areas, I returned to town and presented a Report, dated 21st February, 1920, to the Minister of Labour, in which I came to the following conclusions:—
(1) That the shootings and burnings will cease when the root causes are removed.
(2) That land not wages is the root of the evil.
(3) That the question can only be approached through a conference of farmers and workers.
(4) That the Dáil Minister of Labour is the proper authority to convene this conference, as both sides are overwhelmingly Republican. Even amidst all the trouble up to £6,000 has been actually subscribed to the Loan. Farmers and workers are all doing their share.
(5) That the Dáil must be ready to facilitate the farmers and workers in the provision of someone analogous to a Land Commissioner, or a Labourers Act Inspector.
(6) That the Loan Fund can help very much in the transfer of some of the smaller as well as the larger parcels of land.
Arising out of the discussion of my Report, an informal conference was held on March 8th on the initiative of the Minister of Labour, to discuss the feasibility of Labour Unions taking some active part in the acquisition, management and control of Co-Operative farms to be worked by labourers. The net result of this conference and other interchanges between the Dáil and both sides was that this serious turmoil was checked. The Manifesto appealing to the patriotism of all parties to stop their strife which appeared over the names of the Deputies for the county a little later, finally calmed the trouble, and thus a danger to the State was fortunately removed.
Section 2.
The Land Trouble in Connacht.— Shortly after I took up duty in the Department, the Land trouble in the west became very acute, and reports revealing an alarming state of affairs there flowed daily into my office. Presently large numbers of terrified landowners came up to the city for the purpose of seeking interviews with responsible Republican officials, and beseeching the Dáil for aid and protection. It is a curious anomaly that those aggrieved landholders, mostly persons with strong British sympathies, and hence opposed to the Republic, were actually the first section of the community to advocate strongly the setting up of a Judiciary responsible to An Dáil. Matters became so grave that the Ministry requested me to go to Connacht and study the trouble on the spot with the object of finding some way of allaying it, or, at least, of checking it, even temporarily. I set out for the west early in May, and spent some days travelling through the affected areas and collecting all the information I possibly could. I visited the towns and vicinities of Ballinasloe, Loughrea, and Galway in the Co. Galway; Claremorris, Ballinrobe, the Neale, and Cong in the counties Mayo and Roscommon. I met representatives of every class and section of the people—priests, professional men, I.R.A. officers, landholders and claimants—and was able to form a pretty clear idea of the nature and extent of the trouble. For the Land War of 1920 was no ordinary outbreak. In other years, as the spring came, those who had no land in these so-called Congested Areas cast longing eyes on the lands of those who had, and attempted to grasp them by cattle-driving and other forms of “gentle” pressure but as the spring advanced and their desires remained unsatisfied, they sank back into the slough of despond, perhaps to await such an opportunity as this.
This spring, however, the land war broke out with a virulence and a presage of danger which made the worst of previous years seem positively tame. It is hard to determine why this should be so. It may have been that economic stress had gone past straining point; thousands of young men had been forced to remain in Ireland during the European War, who in ordinary circumstances would have gone to enrich other countries because there was no living for them in their own; and if in their dire need they swarmed on to the land as their only hope we may condemn, but we can at least understand them. But while this may have been the cause, it certainly was not in the main the only one. The cause was as much mental as physical. Power, actual and moral, was passing from the British authorities in Ireland into the hands of the Government of the Republic, but in those days it was in a state of flight and had not yet taken definite rest in its new home.
The British were either so frightened or paralysed or unable to read the sign of the times that they suddenly ceased to perform the ordinary civil functions of administering law and keeping order. The Dáil itself seemed overwhelmed by the suddenness with which the responsibility of Government had been thrust upon it, and for a little while it seemed to shrink from its duty as one shrinks from the fulfilment of an unexpected joy. During the winter of 1919 in Ireland, Government seemed to stand stock-still. Over Leinster and the greater portion of Munster order was kept though there was no one to enforce it. Each side was, as it were, taking a long breath for the struggle for mastery which was bound to come. Only in the west, in Clare and parts of Kerry was the land war producing such a storm as would ultimately rouse the Dáil from its lethargy like an angry mother to punish an unruly child. The majority of the people, though they drank deeply of the draught of freedom, kept their heads, but in the west they were hungry —hungry for land—and easily intoxicated with the wine which they drank to the dregs, they confused license with liberty, they knew the British forces were powerless to restrain them, they hoped and perhaps thought that their own Government would condone a confiscation to right a confiscation of other days; that even if it objected, it too would be powerless to touch them till they had gained their ends. Big ranch and little farm were invaded indiscriminately—the small farms with so much frequency as to indicate the adoption of a policy of a line of least resistance, till no holder felt his title or possession safe.
It was at this moment that Society with one accord turned to the Arbitration Courts to save it from anarchy. Where Courts had been established, as I shall describe later, they immediately got to grips with the menace; in other places they sprang up spontaneously and rapidly, and strove to halt the mad onrush of the revolution. Sometimes they were trampled upon and their decisions scouted, but in general they were applauded and by degrees won universal respect for the speed with which they dealt with troublesome cases.
But the enemies of the ordinary Sinn Féin Arbitration Courts did not take long to see their weakness. The decisions given might be splendid, but where was the machinery to carry them out? Sinn Féin was a political organisation with a strong influence through public opinion, but it was after all only a sectional organisation, and its enemies and those who were anxious to repudiate the Courts could make a good case for refusing to enter these Courts or be bound by their decisions. In places where Sinn Féin was strong and representative of the militant as well as the pacific side of the movement no difficulties were experienced, for by an excess of authority, people who refused to obey decisions were summarily dealt with as enemies to good order and peace. It was in such an atmosphere as this, which would have proved intolerable after a time, as much from the failure to have decisions carried out as perhaps to have unjust and severe decisions issued, that the Dáil stepped in, and I found myself in the west invested with almost plenary powers to grapple with the problem.
On the 13th May, 1920, I went to Ballinasloe and attended the East Galway Comhairle Ceanntair of Sinn Féin, where Father Malachi Brennan presided, and I addressed the delegates on the general principles underlying our attitude towards the Land Movement. We discussed the Constitution of Arbitration Courts and decided on one provisionally for the constituency, to operate until the Dáil had definitely decided on a National Scheme. Kevin O'Shiel, B.L., joined me here and helped in the drafting of Rules of Procedure and Pleadings for Courts. Later, on the 19th May, I went to Galway to attend a conference specially convened to consider the formation of Arbitration Courts. I had no responsibility for the calling of this conference, which concerned another Department, but I availed of the presence of a very representative gathering from all County Galway and other counties in Connacht to enunciate the only definite land policy, which had heretofore been agreed upon by the Dáil in the hope of steadying the agitation. Working along the lines laid down by Commandant Barton in his Land Scheme of October, 1919, I stated to the delegates, inter alia, that:—
"under the British Land Purchase Act the dominant idea was to fix the occupying tenant on the land. Under this scheme the dominant idea was to fix the non-occupying people on untenanted land. This was where the schemes differed. The British Land Purchase Acts would have ensured that the farmers and their sons remained in the country. We were trying to ensure that the farmers' sons, the workers, and other people would have an opportunity of getting on the land, and would not have to go to America. In our schemes three classes were catered for. First there was the uneconomic holder. We proposed to give him an addition of land to bring his holding up to an economic holding—something he could live out of. In the second place, we proposed to get land for the landless people; and in the third place, we proposed to make land available for the small tradesmen living in a rural area, with knowledge of agricultural operations, whose trade or business does not provide him with a sufficient means for a decent livelihood. The central authority in Dublin any more than any other body in the community was not in favour of anything in the nature of confiscation or expropriation, and if it was necessary and desirable that the people who did not possess land should come into the possession of land—and it was very desirable—the people must come into it by the proper mode."
On the 21st May, 1920, I presented a Report of my Connacht mission to the Ministry, in the course of which I outlined the situation in the west as follows:—
"Generally speaking, the recent land trouble tended in Mayo and West Galway to a struggle on the part of uneconomic holders to gain possession of some of the lands in their immediate vicinity, which in many cases were little larger in extent than the claimant's own. In Roscommon and East Galway the struggle was rather for the division of large holdings which might be termed ranches. In Mayo and West Galway there is a heavy demand for land, and little to go round—even including the undivided holdings in the hands of the Congested Districts Board. In Roscommon and East Galway there is a good deal of land to go round, i.e., untenanted lands in the hands of the Congested Districts Board, and other large grazing ranches. Many unjust acts undoubtedly have been done in the name of Sinn Féin, but the situation is rapidly changing. ‘Out of evil cometh good.' Recent happenings have proved that the majority of the people readily turned to organised Republican opinion to save society from a complete collapse."
With the establishment of the Courts by the Dáil and their successful functioning under this Department this sinister menace to the peace of Connacht and of Ireland was removed.
CHAPTER III.—The Land Settlement Commission and Its Courts.—Prior to 1920, there would appear to have been some semi-official Republican Courts in existence. These were more or less of a military nature, usually functioning in private, and gradually came to be known as Sinn Féin Arbitration Courts. Such Courts were no new idea in Irish rural life; they were a feature of the Land League days; they formed a prominent plank in the original platform of the Sinn Féin Policy as erected by Mr. Arthur Griffith, and it was natural that they should be seized upon and adapted to fill the need of Justice as the English Courts became unpopular, but it is doubtful if their greatest upholder or founder foresaw how clearly their extension would shake English power in Ireland to its very foundation. They began in Clare and Galway about the same time in the summer of 1919, and gradually spread to other parts of the west as the need demanded. At first their operations were small and they received little publicity or attention, except in their immediate neighbourhood, till the great wave of land hunger which swept over the west in the spring of 1920 gave them and the Republic at once the greatest test and opportunity. To have coped with the ordinary methods of disorder would have been a remarkable achievement for those young inexperienced Courts, composed as they were of busy men who had their everyday business to attend to and small opportunity for studying the niceties of legal proceedings, but to have withstood so bravely and partially stemmed the avalanche of the Land War of Spring 1920, was something of which a well-seasoned judiciary might be justly proud.
However, in spite of the efficient working of the Sinn Féin Courts and the general success of their decisions, the issue was too momentous and too grave to be dealt with by any but a National Authority, in which not merely the litigants would have confidence, but which would have power to enforce its decrees. I received striking manifestations of this in my experience derived from the first public sitting of any Court directly under the Dáil, held at Ballinrobe on the 17th May, 1920.
As the first case heard at that Court may be properly described as the cornerstone of our Judiciary, it will be excusable to give the circumstances connected with it in some detail. It concerned a farm of land of a little over one hundred acres held jointly by two men named Hyland and Murphy with large families, on to which a crowd of uneconomic holders possessing miserable holdings, some of them as low as £2 Poor Law Valuation, had swarmed. The farm was situated in the parish of Kilmaine. The bitter feelings between the parties had so permeated the whole neighbourhood that it was felt that a local Arbitration Court could not give the case an unprejudiced hearing, with the result that Fr. Martin Healy, P.P., on behalf of the owner, and Mr. Maguire, Solicitor, for the claimants, importuned Mr. Griffith, then Acting President, to send someone with authority from the Dáil to deal with the case. I was specially commissioned to do so, but not having legal training I got Kevin O'Shiel, B.L., to assist. The time and the occasion seemed to me so opportune to bring the administration of Justice out of the cellars and to give both friend and foe an example of Republican Justice delivering its judgment in the full light of day that I decided to hold a Court in public. Events more than justified my action. The enemy had received his first public challenge in the domain which he considered sacrosanct. In a few days public Courts were being held all over the country, and the Republic was making its first great constructive advance, and the outposts of the enemy were being correspondingly driven in.
At the opening of the case, the Solicitor acting for the owners became unnerved at the nature of the Submission Form (which not he but his clients were obliged to sign) and refused to compromise himself by appearing. However, the Rev. Martin Healy, P.P. acted quite successfully as advocate in his stead. The Submission Form was as follows, and is similar to all the submission Forms used in purely Arbitration Courts prior to the setting up of the directly authoritative Courts of the Land Settlement Commission:—
DAIL ÉIREANN ARBITRATION COURTS.
In the matter of .............................. ...................................................... Concerning the Lands of .................... containing .......................................
SUBMISSION FORM.
I, ........................... of .................. hereby, undertake, promise and agree:
(1) To abide by the award of the decision of this Court on the matter submitted for determination in this case.
(2) To comply with any Orders or Obligations which the Court in its Award or Decision may impose.
(3) Not to submit to any Alien Tribunal any matter whereon this Court shall pronounce a decision or make any Award.
(Signed) ..................
Witnessed by ..................
Date ..............................
In the case of Hyland and Murphy we decided against the claimants chiefly because the holding was barely sufficient for the maintenance of the two joint owners and their large families, and because adjoining Hyland's holding there was an undivided ranch of 700 acres in the hands of the Congested Districts Board, towards which the the Claimants should have turned their gaze. The claimants were very indignant at this decision, and, assisted by the promptings of the enemy forces they defied the Order of the Court and continued to remain in possession and enjoy the use of the disputed lands. Furthermore, they went throughout the fairs boasting of their contumacy and waxing eloquent on the futility of the Dáil's authority. But the Republic had a longer arm than they had given her credit for and one night about a fortnight after the issue of the judgment, the captain of the local company of the I.R.A. descended upon them with a squad of his men—sons of very poor farmers like themselves—arrested four of them, and brought them off to that very effective Republican prison—an "unknown destination."
This killed the resistance, and the prisoners were very glad to get back to their homes somewhat later, chastened and wiser men.
This case is of supreme importance as it established confidence in the rigid impartiality of the Courts and showed the determination of the I.R.A. to carry out the decisions. But it also showed the necessity of setting up a Judiciary under Dáil control to deal with such cases, as well as the creation of an executive arm to automatically carry out a Court's decree.
With a view to achieving this I obtained authority from the Ministry to summon a representative conference of Connacht delegates to meet me in Dublin and discuss the question from every angle. This conference met on the 29th May, 1920. It consisted of Connacht Deputies, I.R.A. Commandants, Sinn Féin Representatives, and the Deputies for West Clare and North Longford. The Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Defence were also in attendance.
I summed up the result of this conference in a Report to the Dáil:—
"The Conference achieved its main purpose by showing the necessity for a forward land policy; it showed further the suspicion, which was general, of all section attempts at land settlement not under the authority of An Dáil, and the absolute necessity for co-ordination between the work of the Courts and the machinery to carry out the Decrees. In speech and letter at the Conference four out of every five delegates made it clear that passivity or attempt to drive the land movement under would not be merely futile but dangerous and unjust to the young men whom circumstances of the war had compelled to remain in Ireland, and who now more than ever, from patriotic reasons, desired to remain if they could get a living in their own country.
As a result of the Conference and many discussions I have had with people from different parts of the country, as well as my own observations, I have come to the conclusion that the land question must be tackled by us not in any halfhearted dilettante manner, but with a desire to solve it where so many others have signally failed. The circumstances of the present hour —though much against us in the creation of machinery—favour us as previous generations were not favoured. Power and control are passing from the British Government in land as well as in everything else all over the country, and we should be worse than fools if we let the opportunity pass of righting the wrongs of ages. We must tackle the Land Question as a national proposition, and though we may be able to deal with only a small portion of the problem before we are able to function freely, yet the skeleton we create and proceed to cloth with flesh and life must be properly designed and proportioned from the very commencement, so that no needless amputations or graftings will be necessary later on. To this end I suggest the setting up immediately of a Republican Land Commission under the authority of the Dáil ... The majority of the Commissioners should certainly have a legal training with a good knowledge of the intricacies of Land Tenures of the country, but the root idea in their selection should be the getting of men who, through their knowledge of the country, sympathy for a permanent land settlement, and absolute integrity, would help to solve the problem quickly and well."
In order to consolidate and direct the entire policy of Land Settlement along a broad national avenue, and thus prepare the way for the establishment of the Land Settlement Commission, I obtained sanction from the Ministry to relieve the Local Arbitration Courts of the burdens of Court work in so far as their cases affected land and henceforth to work the whole system of Land Tribunals through properly trained legal men commissioned by me, and the Department of Defence looked after the execution of Decrees till Republican Police became definitely established, though the necessity to call in the strong arm of the law was very seldom necessary. Everyone was eager to obey the decree of the People's Courts, and he who might have been tempted to do otherwise soon found that it was wiser for him to change his tactics, as, apart from any other consideration, public opinion was wholly against him.
The enormous pressure of work on the Department, the amount of correspondence that daily arrived needing prompt personal attention and the drafting and preparing of Decrees for the establishment of the Land Settlement Commission for submission to the Dáil, kept me tied up in Dublin during the summer.
From all parts of the country, especially from the west and south, Registrars of District Courts sent in long lists of land cases that urgently awaited hearing, and eagerly clamoured for sittings of Dáil Land Courts presided over by myself, or some representative of the Dáil. As there was at that time no machinery devised by law to meet and deal with this great accumulation of work, it became necessary to make some temporary arrangement. With the sanction of the Ministry, I issued a Warrant to Kevin O'Shiel as a Special Commissioner authorising him "to arbitrate on all matters relating to disputes about land within the purview of this Ministry"; and he went throughout the country hearing and determining cases.
During the months of May, June and July, and part of August, he was engaged practically every week in holding Land Courts in the troubled areas. He sat in Ballinasloe, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, Roscommon, Castlerea, Mullingar, Castlepollard, Birr, Portlaoghaise, Tullamore, Granard, Longford, Manorhamilton, and ocassionally in Dublin. An idea of the extent of the work is seen from some of his Reports to me. It was impossible for him to stay long enough in one centre to dispose of the entire list, the most he could do being to hear the more urgent cases and adjourn the rest until he had attended to equally urgent cases elsewhere. However, with one or two exceptions, he was never less than two days in any town. He was twice in Roscommon, the first time for a week, and the second time for a fortnight. The conditions prevailing there during the sitting of the Court he describes as surpassing the public interest displayed in the Assize Court of the British system in the period of its heyday. The hotels were packed with counsel, solicitors, land valuers, and litigants, whilst the streets of the town swarmed with hundreds of witnesses.
Every single solicitor in the county, despite politics, and many from neighbouring counties, appeared professionally at some time or another during the sitting. The Court was crowded with the general public who took the greatest interest in the proceedings; and from the very start the People's Courts were everywhere enthusiastically welcomed by all classes of the community, and their awards were, with a few exceptions, loyally accepted and carried out. In Roscommon alone 69 cases were dealt with involving 11,575 acres. This was a considerable achievement when it is remembered that nearly all those cases were of an important nature involving grave considerations of title and descent.
But the Courts showed a tendency to become too popular for a designing class who laid claim to their neighbours' property on vexatious and frivolous grounds, so that some curbing legislation was found necessary, and the Decree of the 29th June, 1920, was planned and put forward by the Minister of Home Affairs. Claims "to farms and holdings which are being used and worked by the occupier as dairy, agricultural residential holdings, such claims being based on the assertion that the claimants or their ancestors were formerly in occupation of the property" were henceforth stopped from all judicial consideration unless the claimant could produce a written licence from the Minister of Home Affairs.
At this time, and until the beginning of the reign of terror in last October, the Sittings were held in public, generally taking place in the Town Hall of the various centres, or in a large Public Hall where the former were lacking. The power and prestige of the British authority were then as now at so low an ebb that these legitimate Courts were actually allowed to carry on their pressing business without any interference from the British Constabulary. An exception to this rule, however, occurred at Mullingar, where armed constabulary and soldiers in full war equipment, accompanied by a tank and some armoured cars, to "make assurance doubly sure" no doubt, descended upon the County Hall and interrupted the proceedings in so violent a fashion that the Commissioner was obliged to adjourn. Yet that very evening the Court resumed its work in the town and carried out its prescribed business without a litigant, a witness, or a lawyer refusing to attend.
These Courts proved beyond all manner of doubt that axiom which we so frequently asserted, and which the enemy as frequently denied, namely, that given an authority based on the impregnable foundation of the consent of the governed, no people in the world are more law-abiding or more peaceable or more impatient with the lawless than the people of this Republic.
The Formation of the Land Settlement Commission.—The more I studied the land question the more I became convinced of the absolute necessity for the early erection of the solid and permanent machinery for dealing with it —the Land Settlement Commission— which had been projected in my Report to the Dáil in June, 1920. Special Commissioners acting under special warrants did useful work in allaying the trouble when it was at its height, but for settling it some constructive institution with large judicial and inquisitional powers was badly needed.
At the Session of An Dáil above referred to I presented for first reading a draft of the Bill for the Establishment of the Land Settlement Commission, embodying in more detail the view set forth in my Report. In addition, the important developments of the Land Courts with full judicial powers, not mere Arbitration Tribunals, are shown in the following clauses in this draft:—
Clause 3 stated
"that on and after the appointed day, to be a day to be later determined by a Ministerial Order, all claims affecting the ownership, occupation, or user of lands automatically pass under the jurisdiction of the Land Commission and its Courts."
Clause 5 stated
"That all claims to land to be filed with the local Registrar of the Land Commission Courts. That pending the examination of and decision of these claims, acts of aggression against the persons in possession of or enjoyment of the lands, or against persons working on the lands, or against the lands claimed, will seriously prejudice the further consideration of the claims."
And in order to make sure that no possible miscarriage of justice might have been unwittingly committed by the popular Courts in existence prior to the Dáil Courts, I inserted a sub-section to Clause 5, which ordered—
"That all judgments affecting the ownership, occupation, or use of lands pronounced by popularly created Courts since January 31, 1919, shall be forthwith lodged with the local Registrars of the Land Courts. The Commission may confirm said judgments, or order a rehearing of the issues before its own Courts as it may think fit."
This Bill was read a second time at the August, 1920, Session of An Dáil, and on the 17th September, 1920, in its finally amended state was passed by An Dáil. This Decree consisted of twelve main clauses, with several subsections. It provides for the constitution of a Land Commission to consist of one legal Commissioner and two lay Commissioners, to be appointed by the President of Dáil Éireann in consultation with the Minister of Agriculture. The legal Commissioner and every successor in his office must be a person who at the date of his appointment is a practising barrister or solicitor of not less than three years' standing. In the event of the death, resignation, or incapacity of any of the Commissioners, the President of the Dáil, in consultation with the Minister of Agriculture, has power to fill the vacancy.
Clause (2) refers to the incorporation of the Commission under the name of the Land Settlement Commission, and that all the Courts of Justice of the Republic will take notice of its Corporate Seal. Clause (3) deals with the Sub-Commissions that may be erected; Clauses (4) and (5) with the Salaries of Commissioners; Clause (6) and part of Clause (7) with Appeals to the Court of Appeal of the Commission and to the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Republic. The greater part of Clause (7) refers to the Commissioners' powers over the acquiring, holding, allocating, leasing, alienating, etc., of the land, whilst Clause (8) gives it power to make rules for carrying the Decree into effect. Clause (9) deals with the appearance of parties before the Commission; Clause (10) makes it impossible for a Commissioner to be a Deputy of the Dáil, and the last two Clauses deal with the Annual Reports and Accounts of the Commission.
Having got the Decree finally passed through the Dáil, I immediately proceeded to get the Commission established and functioning as soon as possible. In a very short time I had it created in part, and at present the headquarters staff consists of three Commissioners. It has also a Secretary and a Chief Registrar. In the country this work is supplemented by the services of several competent valuers, available when required, and the Registrars are the same in every case as the Registrars of the District Court under the Department of Home Affairs.
Since its inception, it has been busily engaged in carrying out the work for which it was created. From September onwards Courts have been held and lands valued and divided under its ægis in many parts of the country. And this, it must not be forgotten, in spite of deliberate and well-planned terrorism on the part of the enemy to paralyse this important administrative wing of our Government.
A Session was held in Templemore a few days after its sacking and pillage. Again, in the town of Loughrea in the month of October, a Court sitting was held whilst armed British forces flowed through the streets in a futile attempt to suppress the tribunal—which they could not find. The Commissioners also visited Carlow, Sligo, Leitrim, Offaly, Tipperary, Clare, and other parts of the south during the blackest days of the past winter. Many Courts were held in Dublin, too, where Orders and judgments were made which were always loyally obeyed.
Early in the year I was able to present to the Ministry a complete Con titution of the Court of the Land Settlement Commission, with accompanying Rules and Regulations governing practice, pleading and procedure, and also specimen forms. This Court is divided into three main divisions, viz. :—the Division of First Instance, the Division of Emergency, and the Division of Appeal. The Division of First Instance is further divided into two equal and concurrent Courts—the Court of General Sessions which sits throughout the year in the city of Dublin, and the various Courts of District Sessions which sit in every District Court area at specified times during the year. Courts of this Division are, as their name implies, purely Courts of First Instance. Cases are heard fully in them ab initio, and all the evidence thoroughly sifted, when judgments are given on the merits.
The Court of the Division of Emergency has power to sit every day of the week in the city of Dublin. It is presided over by one judicial Commissioner who hears and issues Orders in matters brought before him on Motions of Notice. It is an Emergency Jurisdiction and is meant for adjusting—temporarily at least—urgent matters in cases which may appear not to be listed in either of the other Divisions. The Division of Appeal needs no explanation, save to mention that Appeals can come before it from either of the other Divisions. Where the Court of this Division thinks proper, there is machinery provided for sending a case on to the Supreme Court of Judicature of the Republic.
I think I can safely claim now that the Land Settlement Commission and its Courts are solidly established and are working continuously and smoothly at the task of solving the insistent and troublesome land question. Let it not be inferred from this that the Land Settlement Commission has gone forth seeking trouble. The task was forced on it by the attempted land revolution of last year, and I cannot do better than restate the policy which has guided the Commission as enunciated in my Report to the Dáil at the meeting in January last, as follows :—
"...I hold now as I held and stated last June that operating for ownership of land on cash basis at the present time is a mistake and is a policy which should be discouraged from a national point of view. Lords of the soil are trading upon sentiment and the land hunger of the people. They fear a change. They are delighted to get an opportunity to clear out of the country with their pockets well lined with Irish money.
General use of land under a guarantee of security from the State is what should be aimed at for the moment, as the creation of a lot of new tenures as in the present circumstances may tie the hands of a future Government when one is able to function freely and to have the best schemes of land policy and settlement knocked into shape under fair open criticism. Further, if the buying up of supposed interests in the soil continues at the present rate, money for industrial purposes, which should be run in close association with the land, will be very difficult to obtain."
I have prepared returns of the operations of the land Courts (both of the Land Settlement Commission and of this Department prior to the creation of the Commission) from May, 1920, till June 30, 1921. These returns give summaries not merely for the whole country but for each individual county under headings which are readily understandable. They will be found as Appendices (A) and (B) at the end of this Report.
CHAPTER IV.—Forestry.—Although I favour and have always favoured an active State policy with regard to Forestry, the conditions last year were such that I was compelled to follow a cautious path in this matter. To attempt reafforestation in a state of war is as fruitless as setting a tent in the teeth of a gale, and it became my endeavour to conserve existing woods rather than create new ones.
In the best of times I do not put much "suim" in an Arbor Day celebration. The most one can hope to achieve in practice from an Arbor Day such as was successfully held in 1919 is the planting of a few hundred thousand trees in isolation; if they resist the ravages of vermin and storm they may in time add to the beauty of the landscape, temper the climate, and improve the nature of the soil, but such a movement, though it may direct the attention of our people to the scandalous condition of the country as regards forests, will not increase its area under woods by one per cent. in a generation. There is only one solvent for our low percentage of Forests—financing and direction and control by a free governing State.
While waiting and working patiently for its advent I am not blind to the necessity for some preparations "i gcóir an lae"—ní lá na gaoite lá na scolb. Foresters and men trained on proper lines are the first essential in any national scheme of afforestation, and unfortunately Ireland does not seem to possess many, if any of them. So in June, 1920, I applied to the Dáil for a vote of £30,000 to be availed of when necessary to purchase an estate and residence on it suitable for a central Forestry Station and School; I did not succeed in obtaining the vote, as the proposal was considered somewhat premature, though all were in sympathy. Last autumn I did not even attempt to gain the limited benefit derivable from an Arbor Day, because two great difficulties made it almost impossible. Young trees were not available to any extent, and a suitable Inspector of Forestry could not be obtained.
It is encouraging to observe the interest the country takes in reafforestation and the preserving of existing woods and forests. I have had letters from Sinn Féin Clubs for information on the planting of waste lands; from Co. Councils complaining of the excessive felling of timber and asking for restrictions on felling or at least on export. It has been difficult without legislation to deal with this latter type of case. Special need often called forth action which I felt was a straining on my jurisdiction. For instance, last year when I received an accredited statement that a timber merchant who had made sad havoc with a beautiful wood at Maam without replanting a single tree, was continuing his vandalism on the shores of Lough Mask, I sent him an Order "not to cut down or permit, or cause to be cut down any of the trees in the wood known as Kilbride Wood near the shores of Lough Mask, unless and until the District Court for the area gave him permission. In other cases I threw the responsibility on the Co. Committees of Agriculture to impose the check or take the responsibility of advising me when complaints were made; fortunately for the survival of many woods in various parts of the country during the past year restraint on their cutting was imposed by our Army authorities for military reasons, but though public policy may demand such restraint, the Dáil must issue a decree to allow this legally to be done unless under Army Order. Viewing this question broadly, it is obvious that the following considerations must get due consideration:—
(1) Contracts effected prior to issue of a Decree of the Dáil cannot be interfered with without compensation. Will the Dáil compensate?
(2) After due notice by Decree or otherwise, prohibitive action might be taken in cases where woods are to be cut wholesale, for example, cutting of trees on areas in excess of 1 acre unless sanctioned by the authority of the Dáil.
(3) Cutting in itself should not be considered a crime if the trees are matured and their cutting will not be a serious damage to a District in beauty, soil, or otherwise.
(4) Replanting is difficult to enforce, and in many cases it would be unjust to use compulsion on the owner of a cleared area unless a definite percentage of the money required could be supplied by the State.
(5) All of above could be well assisted by propaganda in the public Press, discussion at Public Boards and Councils, and creation of general interest in what should be all the people's concern.
During and since the European War, timber merchants and land jobbers have been felling and exporting timber to England to such an extent that whole areas in Wicklow and Kerry and other parts of the country have been literally cleared of the standing timber, and, bad as Ireland's case was, it has probably suffered more in the past five or six years than in the fifty years of its previous history, and it will take generations to restore the balance of the damage done.
This is the burden of a most incisive report of the Leix and Ossory Comhairle
Ceanntair of Sinn Féin; also of a constructive resolution from the Cork Corporation Food Emergency Committee which I received last year. Intelligent thought in the country is aware of the disease; it will assist in the remedy.
Within their limited powers, up to the present many Co. Councils have done splendid service for Forestry. Councils can levy a penny rate for the systematic culture and preservation of timber; this provides for acquisition of land, creation of nurseries, planting, fencing, etc. Under this scheme the county which is most deserving of imitation and emulation is Kildare, which, with its whole-time forester and wood rangers has over 360 acres of woods and plantations under its control, not to mention the hundreds of shelter belts it has made available round farmsteads, and the nurseries it has created for the cultivation of young trees. Other counties should at least seriously consider the starting of nurseries, even if they cannot find a generous landowner, as in Kildare, to give its woods a start.
At this Meeting application is being made for a Decree to enable the felling of timber to be dealt with in a methodised manner in the future.
CHAPTER V.—Labour Disputes Bearing on Agricultural Matters.—The Department of Agriculture has frequently been called upon to settle disputes of an agrarian nature between employers and employees. During my term of office I have had to enquire into, and adjust many such disputes. I give herewith some details of my work in this connection.
(1) County Carlow Agricultural Wages Dispute.—Last August a dispute which promised to be serious broke out between the farmers and the farm workers of the Co. Carlow. A number of prominent local Republicans did what they could to settle the trouble in the national interests but, unfortunately, did not succeed. Subsequently they applied to this Department to interfere before it was too late. After some vicissitudes and abortive meetings on the part of the antagonists, I at length succeeded in arranging a Conference which was attended by representatives of the Co. Carlow Association of the Farmers' Union and by the Carlow Branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union. Fr. Killian, C.C. presided at this Conference, and when it broke down I had to arbitrate along with him on the points at issue. We issued the following award, which I quote in full as it sets out, on the face of it, the history and subject matter of the dispute, and shows the usual form in which such awards are made.
"Whereas a Conference convened by the Minister of Agriculture of Dáil Éireann was held at Carlow Town Hall on Wednesday, 10th August, 1920, between representatives of the Farmers' Union and the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union of Co. Carlow.
"And whereas said Conference agreed unanimously to the Presidency of the Rev. John Killian, C.C.
"And whereas said Conference discussed an application for increase of Wages from the I.T. & G.W.U. based upon the letter dated 27th April, 1920, from Secretary of I.T. & G.W.U. to E.H. Broughan, Esq., Ballybromhill, Fenagh, Co. Carlow, as follows :—
‘(1) For men over 18 years a weekly wage of 45/-
‘(2) For boys under 18 years a weekly wage of 35/-.
‘(3) For all a 50-hour week, time and a half overtime and double payment for Sunday work.
‘(4) Perquisites to remain as per Agricultural Wages Board Order of 19th April, 1920.
‘(5) For men over 18 years a Harvest Bonus of 80/-, and for boys under 18 a Harvest Bonus of 60/-, to be payable on or before 1st November, 1920.'
"And whereas said Conference failed to agree upon any of the above-mentioned points (1) to (5) inclusive.
"And whereas further said Conference unanimously agreed to submit to the arbitration of Arthur O'Connor, T.D., and the Rev. John Killian, C.C., all questions touching said points (1) to (5) inclusive and further the duration of this Award.
"And whereas the said Arthur O'Connor, T.D. and the said Rev. J. Killian, C.C., have duly sat in judgment on the aforesaid matters in the dispute. Now it is hereby decided and determined and our signature affixed herewith witness, that:—
(1) For men over 18 years of age wage shall be 36/6 per week.
(2) For boys from 16 to 18 years of age wage shall be 22/- per week.
(3)(a) Week shall consist of six working days of 9 hours each as and from this date to October 31, 1920 inclusive, and it shall consist of six working days of 8½ hours each as and from November 1, 1920, to February 28, 1921, inclusive.
(b) Overtime to be calculated at one and a half times the ordinary rate.
(c) Sunday Rate:—Men over 18 years of age to receive payment for Sunday work at the rate of 1/2 per hour; minimum payment for Sunday work to be 2/-. Boys from 16 to 18 years of age to receive payment for Sunday work at rate of 9d. per hour, minimum payment for Sunday work to be 1/-.
(4) Perquisites which may be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash for the purpose of this award shall be valued as follows:—(Here followed Schedule of Perquisites which represented an average increase of 20 per cent. on the Agricultural Wages Board Scale.
(5) Harvest Bonus shall be as follows:—
(a) Men over 18 years of age £3.
(b) Boys 16 to 18 years of age £2 to be payable before November 1, 1920.
(c) This Award to be binding on all members of the Farmers' Union and the I.T. & G.W.U. in Co. Carlow and operative within the said County of Carlow as and from this date until the 28th day of February, 1921, inclusive.
Published this 18th day of August, 1920, as our Award.
(Signed),
Arthur O'Connor, T.D.
John Killian, C.C.
Presiding Arbitrators.
This Award appears to have given general satisfaction. A local priest writing to me about it says: "There is general satisfaction and relief over Award. A very few on either side dissatisfied. Our Bishop commends it strongly."
(2) The I.T. & G.W.U. and Lazarian Guild Dispute.—My next incursion into the realm of trouble in Agricultural Labour was also in Carlow at Kildavin in November, 1920, and had to do with a most unusual class of dispute, viz., a dispute between two labour organisations which hit and hampered the farmers while it lasted. The dispute concerned a very few men, yet, as the principle involved was important, it is worth recording. I went to Kildavin and met representatives of the Farmers' Union, the I.T. & G.W.U., and Lazarian Guild in Conference. The Secretary of the Farmers' Union complained that although they had no quarrel with their workers, yet they probably suffered more in the hostilities between the rival labour organisations than if they had been taking part in the contest themselves. They were sniped at by both sides. Feeling was very bitter between the two organisations, as the whole controversy seemed to centre round the status of big as opposed to little unions. The I.T. & G.W.U. wished to gobble up the Lazarian Guild, and the latter refused to be assimilated. The matter was much more for a Trades' Congress than a Governmental authority, unless in so far as restraint on freedom of action was attempted on a group of workers who wished to live their own life in their own way. Being without guidance of any general legislation by the Dáil on such an issue, I was compelled to offer advice rather than attempt a solution. Apparently the advice tendered was well accepted as I have heard nothing of the matter since.
(3) The Curragh Stable-Lads' Dispute.—The Arbitration on the above dispute though not held directly under the authority of the Department is also worthy of record as an index of the readiness with which arbitration was accepted last year before the reign of terror as a solvent for all grave difficulties. In the June of 1920, a dispute arose between the trainers and the stable-lads at the Curragh just a few days before the Irish Derby Meeting. It was essential to settle it, and to settle it speedily. After some preliminaries, the Kildare Co. Council eventually succeeded in getting both sides to submit their case to an Arbitration Court made up of four arbitrators and presided over by me. The Court met in the Kildare Courthouse on the 15th July, and on the same evening issued an Award which gave general satisfaction; there has been peace on the Curragh since.
(4) Other Disputes.—During the past winter and spring agricultural disputes were few. In Carlow, threats of a break between the I.T. & G.W.U. and the Farmers' Union arose many times but they have succeeded in carrying on together so far; in Cork, some trouble actually did occur in the Liberties, but the Cork Sinn Féin Executive, with which I was in contact, handled the situation very well and set up a special Arbitration Board (ad hoc) to deal with the disputes which had arisen, and eased some difficulties in the County as well. Most of the leading counties in which paid labour is prevalent, such as Dublin and Kildare, managed to arrive at agreements covering the coming year on the same terms as the old without hostilities. About a month ago a strike and lock-out actually came to a head in Co. Wicklow, but on intervention from this Department it was settled by C.M. Byrne, T.D., before there was time for crops to suffer much damage. Three weeks back, a strike was threatened in Co. Meath, but was suspended on the intervention of our Ministry of Labour, and a representative from this Department arbitrated on the matters in dispute.
As far as I can learn there are no farm disputes existing at present.
(5) General Conditions of Agricultural Labour.—The conditions and development of that section of labour which comes within my province have caused me considerable anxiety.
The attitude of the big farmers to the little farmers, and of farm-workers to all farmers in general, is frequently one which requires the most careful and delicate handling from those in control of affairs.
In the Departmental Report which I presented to the January, 1921 Session of the last Dáil I went very fully into some aspects of this thorny question which must be tackled sooner or later.
I herewith reproduce those parts of my Report dealing with the matter. The question is just as acute to-day as at the time the January Report was written.
"Unemployment.—There is another matter connected with the land which I regard as of very pressing importance. Unemployment is becoming a menace to England, and it is a certainty that Ireland will be caught in the backwash of it, too. Already signs are pointing to extensive unemployment here from two main causes:—
"(1) The prices obtainable for farm produce are on the down grade, costs of production are remaining stationary, farmers are gradually dropping tillage and allowing the lands to run into grass.
"(2) The acts of the enemy in destroying creameries and other rural industries are driving people out of work. The inevitable tendency of unemployed is to flock to the towns where, with stagnation in building and other engineering trades and destruction of plants by enemy acts, the number of unemployed is already considerable.
"This problem of unemployment can be tackled in Ireland with greater hopes of success than in England if it is done now. In England the outlets for fresh developments are practically nil owing to its highly organised industrial condition and dense population. In Ireland we have the land which could at least support unemployed and save them from being a burden on the community and a menace to the well-being of the State. The chief difficulty is to know how to give the unemployed access to the land. Vested interests, of course, will make this hard.
"Compulsory Tillage.—There are two main lines of approach open to us, either to deal with this matter of land access on a compulsory basis or a voluntary one. I favour the voluntary one, appealing to the patriotic sense of the individual affected, as the majority of our people have a loathing for compulsion, and compulsion creates a necessity for control which would be very difficult to exercise in our present circumstances. And here I may observe that were it not for the arrest of the Teachta for East Cork, this subject would have been debated in any event if I had not decided to bring it forward, as he has tabled a private member's Bill for Compulsory Tillage.
Of course, if it is the sense of the Dáil that compulsion in some shape or form must be used, I shall endeavour to overcome the difficulties if it is my duty to carry a scheme through.
Whether a scheme for increased tillage to utilise men who would otherwise be employed is to be carried out on a compulsory or voluntary basis, there are many points of policy on which I would like to have the opinions of An Dáil. Whether cultivation on tillage farms should be extended or the undeveloped ranch lands be brought under the plough? Probably the extension of cultivation on good tillage farms would give the most satisfactory results, though the national conscience would feel easier if the ranch lands were invaded, and it seems to me that a sharp line of division will need to be struck between the farmer who has done, is doing, and intends to do his duty by the State in working his land, and the man who, by keeping large tracts of land out of cultivation, is a menace to the whole community. Voluntary operations with the farmer and the equivalent of compulsion with the other would seem to be the most suitable line.
"Further difficulties, of course, will arise as to whether the unemployed are to be taken on as additional hands by a tillage farmer under definite guarantee of fair return for his crop and security against labour upheavals, or whether a farmer should set aside a certain amount of ground upon his farm at a fair rent which the unemployed could work to the best of their ability individually or in co-operative groups without interference or without responsibility to the farmer who gives the land.
"All these seem matters of detail, yet they must of necessity dovetail one into the other to make a scheme for the use of land which would help to solve the problem of unemployment, and they will be difficult to arrange if farmers and workers approach them with a suspicion that, under the pressure of a serious national crisis, advantage is being taken to make them swallow economic doctrines and create systems which they do not like. But some such scheme, in my opinion, is necessary to rid us of the spectre of unemployment, and if the best elements in the State who take an interest in the land are rallied to its support, it can surely tide us past this danger.
If An Dáil believe that some such steps as suggested above should be taken to deal with unemployment, I would respectfully suggest that it arms the Ministry with the power to have same brought into effect with the force of a Decree."
CHAPTER VI.—Food Produce, Stock, Agricultural Education and Industries, and General Matters.—I desire to bring this Survey of Work Done to an end by recording as briefly as possible the work achieved under the above headings.
Food Produce, etc.—Last winter a deputation of the Farmers' Union waited on the Vice President, the Minister of Labour, the Minister for Trade and Industries, and myself. They stated that they were agreed that a sufficiency of such food-stuffs as bacon, butter, etc., should be retained in the country for the use of the people; they objected, however to the principle that labour organisations should fix the proportion to be retained, but were willing to agree to any decisions come to by a tribunal set up by An Dáil. On this offer being communicated to the representatives of labour, they also expressed their willingness to accept the directions of such a tribunal.
In October last Mr. David Kent, T.D. filed on the Agenda of the Dáil a Bill for the increased production of food-stuffs to be called the "Corn Production Decree, 1921." This proposed Decree sought to make it compulsory for all persons holding arable land to put as much of the land under cultivation "as will ensure a sufficient supply of food for the people of this country, to be classed as follows:—
"(a) All persons holding less than 50 statute acres shall put 10 per cent. under cultivation.
"(b) All persons holding 50 statute acres or less than 100 shall put 15 per cent. under cultivation.
"(c) All persons holding 100 statute acres or over shall put 20 per cent. under cultivation."
The Bill made provision, also, for the infliction of certain penalties. Those not complying with the terms of the Decree, and who held under 200 acres of land to be fined £25 for every 50 acres they possessed, whilst persons holding more than 200 acres were to be fined £100, "and in addition £100 for every hundred acres over and above 200 acres."
Mr. Kent's unfortunate arrest by the enemy prevented the many interesting points in this Bill from being discussed.
Last November I sent a Circular to every Co. Council in the country re conservation of potato supplies and the growing of wheat. These Councils gave the matter wide publicity with perhaps good effect as regards the potatoes, but certainly not as regards wheat. Everything favoured the planting of wheat last winter except in areas where the war was very intense; yet, reports which I have recently received reveal the fact that the quantity of wheat grown shows a still further decline. There is one element of consolation about the matter at the moment, it can hardly be much worse, and with a little propaganda it may readily improve. The quantity of wheat grown in Ireland is about sufficient to supply the population for 10 weeks, a state of affairs which would be tolerated in no other agricultural country in the world. It is contended that wheat does not mature properly and that it does not pay, but national security in this important stable food must rise above “the high quality” and “present worth.” The open nature of the spring favoured farming, with the result that considerably more land was put under the plough than might have been expected, and although oats in acreage and yield, and due to drought, will fall considerably below last year, potatoes are expected to give a fair acreage and return. The long spell of drought has seriously prejudiced the turnip crop, but mangolds will yield well. I have recently obtained a fair general survey of the crop conditions and prospects from practically every county, and I hope to be in a position to give more explicit information on the subject on the day of the Meeting.
In order to guard against possible loss in the potato crop through blight, I issued a warning in the Press re spraying on the 30/6/'21, and since it became evident that the hay crop would be very poor, and that there would be no hope of it being supplemented by straw for winter feeding, I issued Notices and Circulars to the County Committees of Agriculture re catch crops for spring forage, and I am glad to report that the movement is being well taken up in the country. The circulars issued in connection with the above will be found in the appendices.
As a natural corollary to the decline of tillage consequent unemployment, and scarcity of human food other than meat, the grazing system generally comes in for a large measure of condemnation from the people and the people's Councils. I have had many such resolutions during the past year, and feeling is becoming so insistent and irritated by the large amount of the country which is being allowed to run into a wilderness of grass that the Dáil will probably be forced to legislate on the matter without delay.
Stock, etc.—The milk supply of the country should naturally fall under the heading of food, but I have purposely put the subject here to enable it to be associated with the Dairy Stock from which it has its origin.
Last year, in the month of May, the Commission of Inquiry into the Resources and Industries of Ireland issued its first Report—an interim one—on Milk Production. This Report disclosed a very unsatisfactory condition of the milk industry, due largely to inferior types of dairy cattle, and recommended in general terms the acquisition or leasing of certain suitable farms for the improvement of dairy herds. The Report was considered by the Ministry, who referred it back to the Commission with widened terms of reference to enable a more detailed Report and recommendation to be made. This Report has been received by the Ministry, and circumstances arising out of the war have alone prevented its recommendations from being brought before the Dáil.
The health of a nation's stock must, after the health of its people, be a prime consideration. Animals, like human beings, are subject to sickness and diseas. As some diseases are of a particularly virulent and contagious nature, every Government must take adequate measures to prevent or cure these diseases, not only for its own sake, but as a safeguard for the health of other States if it engages in a live stock export trade. Hence it is that the enemy Government which imposed its rule on this country in other days from time to time devised measures for ensuring that Irish live stock would have a clean bill of health. Amongst such measures was sheep-dipping for scab, and isolation and slaughter for "foot and mouth." One would fancy from the behaviour of some individuals and public bodies since the enemy administration was overthrown that such regulations were penal survivals which should be got rid of as soon as possible by all good Republicans. They are nothing of the sort. Sheep dipping, for example, if properly carried out is the sheep owners' and the country's protection against scab and other diseases, and public bodies which on the false plea of economy are dropping their sheep dipping schemes and dispensing with their equipment and inspectors are guilty of a grave dereliction of duty. Specious arguments have been used against these regulations, but they bear no weight— good wine is not altered by the shape of the bottle in which it is stored.
Agricultural Industries, Education, and General Matters.—For obvious reasons, very little of a constructive nature has been done in the matter of agricultural industries. While the enemy enjoyed the flare of a creamery on the midnight sky, new factories of any description would merely have presented him with an additional opportunity for his fiendish work.
The national poet of England seemed to have had a prophetic vision of his country's agents here and elsewhere:
"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Make ill deeds done."
That a building served a distinctly national purpose in Ireland was sufficient to decree it to destruction; consequently the Dressed Meat Factory project in Waterford still remains in its embryonic state, and agricultural industry has receded instead of advanced through the destruction of its creameries and farm buildings.
Education.—Education in agriculture is more a joke than a reality in a country which is predominantly agricultural, and which, failing another deluge or earth movement, must remain so. It does seem surprising to see every encouragement given to the best brains in the country to follow careers apart from agriculture, and in cases where young men are attracted towards the land and are anxious to specialise in theoretical and applied agriculture the facilities accorded them are not to be compared with those enjoyed by intending doctors, lawyers, or engineers.
Education for agriculture, instead of being the centre of our system, is just barely tolerated; and the only ray of hope I can see is the Scholarship Programme projected by some of the go-ahead Co. Councils which are determined to give agriculture its pride of place.
Other Matters.—There are other aspects of the Department's activities which cannot be published now, but enough, I hope, has been written to show that the Department has not been unmindful of the responsibilities with which the Dáil has entrusted it.
I return my sincere thanks to Mr. O'Shiel, B.L. who kindly arranged the materials for this survey and put it in draft; he also wrote the first part, but I have altered it so much that he may with difficulty recognise his own work; I commend the staff for their loyal devotion to duty at all times. I also wish to acknowledge the spirit of union and co-operation which existed between all Departments of the State, and which alone made our continuance possible, particulary during the reign of terror. Other countries may, perhaps, have had more gorgeous revolutions; none has had more unified service than ours.
(APPENDIX "A")
RETURN
SHOWING PARTICULARS OF LANDS DEALT WITH BY AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT AND LAND COMMISSION OF AN DAIL IN PERIOD MAY 1ST TO DECEMBER 31ST, 1920.
|
NAME OF COUNTY
|
Totals dealt with
|
Cases Ruled out under Decree 29/6/20
|
Cases in which Lands were alienated
|
Cases in which Prices were fixed
|
Cases in which Lands were left undisturbed
|
Cases in which Decisions are pending
|
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
Prices Fixed
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
£
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cavan
|
1
|
24
|
1
|
24
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Clare
|
11
|
1,265
|
2
|
100
|
5
|
744
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
4
|
411
|
—
|
—
|
|
Cork
|
5
|
1,339
|
1
|
57
|
1
|
11
|
1
|
1,093
|
24,123
|
2
|
178
|
—
|
—
|
|
Donegal
|
1
|
—
|
1
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Dublin
|
5
|
390
|
3
|
337
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
2
|
53
|
—
|
—
|
|
Galway
|
29
|
7,675
|
1
|
42
|
16
|
6,359
|
6
|
3,862
|
49,683
|
11
|
830
|
1
|
179
|
|
Kildare
|
10
|
752
|
7
|
230
|
2
|
359
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
163
|
—
|
—
|
|
Kilkenny
|
1
|
73
|
1
|
73
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Leix and Ossory
|
5
|
532
|
1
|
93
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
3
|
323
|
1
|
117
|
|
Leitrim
|
4
|
741
|
—
|
—
|
2
|
251
|
1
|
251
|
—
|
1
|
—
|
1
|
490
|
|
Limerick
|
4
|
248
|
4
|
248
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Longford
|
6
|
1,229
|
2
|
43
|
3
|
1,144
|
2
|
1,088
|
7,000
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
—
|
|
Mayo
|
16
|
2,395
|
—
|
—
|
8
|
881
|
2
|
132
|
3,327
|
4
|
278
|
4
|
963
|
|
Meath
|
2
|
789
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
69
|
1
|
69
|
2,500
|
1
|
720
|
—
|
—
|
|
Offaly
|
21
|
3,756
|
6
|
247
|
4
|
1,557
|
3
|
1,493
|
26,650
|
5
|
1,457
|
6
|
454
|
|
Roscommon
|
69
|
11,575
|
4
|
111
|
32
|
5,678
|
8
|
1,072
|
17,545
|
17
|
1,781
|
16
|
3,855
|
|
Sligo
|
2
|
93
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
18
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
75
|
—
|
—
|
|
Tipperary
|
12
|
14,301
|
4
|
146
|
5
|
2,320
|
1
|
440
|
9,500
|
2
|
615
|
1
|
11,220
|
|
Waterford
|
1
|
—
|
1
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Westmeath
|
21
|
2,395
|
1
|
—
|
3
|
1,484
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
13
|
475
|
4
|
436
|
|
Wicklow
|
3
|
81
|
3
|
81
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
TOTALS
|
229
|
49,653
|
43
|
1,832
|
83
|
20,875
|
25
|
9,500
|
140,330
|
67
|
7,359
|
35
|
17,714
|
(APPENDIX "B.")
RETURN
SHOWING PARTICULARS OF LANDS DEALT WITH BY THE LAND SETTLEMENT COMMISSION OF AN DA AIL IN PERIOD JANUARY 1ST TO JUNE 30TH, 1921
|
NAME OF COUNTY
|
Totals Cases dealt with
|
Cases Ruled out under Decree 29/6/20
|
Cases in which Lands were alienated
|
Cases in which Prices were fixed
|
Cases in which Lands were left undisturbed
|
Cases in which Decisions are pending
|
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
Prices Fixed
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
No. of Cases
|
Area Acres
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
£
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carlow
|
5
|
228
|
2
|
25
|
2
|
27
|
2
|
27
|
750
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
176
|
|
Galway
|
11
|
2,732
|
—
|
—
|
6
|
2,211
|
5
|
2,032
|
20,940
|
—
|
—
|
5
|
521
|
|
Kerry
|
1
|
200
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
18
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
182
|
—
|
—
|
|
Kildare
|
1
|
73
|
1
|
73
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Leix and Ossory
|
3
|
366
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
5
|
425
|
1
|
43
|
1
|
318
|
|
Leitrim
|
2
|
644
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
2
|
644
|
3,445
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
1
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
(Purchase 6,050 price apportioned)
|
—
|
—
|
|
Limerick
|
7
|
796
|
6
|
178
|
1
|
618
|
1
|
618
|
15,000
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Longford
|
2
|
22
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
2
|
22
|
—
|
—
|
|
Mayo
|
8
|
889
|
5
|
269
|
2
|
384
|
2
|
384
|
7,687
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
228
|
|
Offaly
|
4
|
1,434
|
—
|
—
|
3
|
250
|
3
|
250
|
4,420
|
1
|
960
|
—
|
—
|
|
Roscommon
|
19
|
5,380
|
—
|
—
|
12
|
2,399
|
12
|
2,399
|
26,318
|
5
|
2,083
|
10
|
2,743
|
|
Sligo
|
3
|
99
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
81
|
1
|
81
|
1,623
|
1
|
—
|
1
|
18
|
|
Tipperary
|
2
|
586
|
1
|
480
|
1
|
106
|
1
|
106
|
2,100
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Westmeath
|
1
|
48
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
1
|
48
|
—
|
—
|
|
TOTALS
|
70
|
13,497
|
15
|
1,025
|
29
|
6,094
|
31
|
6,546
|
88,758
|
11
|
3,338
|
19
|
4,004
|
NOTE.—The above "Total No. of Cases dealt with" may include some which are given as "ones in which Decisions were Pending" on 31st December, 1920, as the actual Court work would be finished but examination of titles and valuations might remain to be settled.
The sums given under the heading "Purchase Prices fixed" represent in some cases all the interests to which the lands were subject prior to purchase, in others only the tenant interest with a continuing charge on the lands. It is obviously impossible to give this detail in a general Return so that no sure data as to price per acre of land can be deduced from above. Accurate data of all cases dealt with can be obtained on application by any Deputy.
The Agricultural Department of Dáil Éireann begs to direct the attention of farmers and plotholders to the great necessity of having their potatoes sprayed in good time. Blight was very prevalent last year and lightened the yield in thousands of acres in Connacht and Munster. Spraying is the great preventative of blight, and proves its value in good returns on the crops.
Virulent attacks of the disease are almost certain to follow a break in the present fine weather.
Advice on the proper mixtures, means and times for spraying, can be obtained through the various Committees of Agriculture in the country.
Spray early and, if possible, spray twice.
DAIL ÉIREANN.
AIREACHT TALAMHUIDHEACHTA.
(Agricultural Department).
5th August, 1921.
A chara,
Herewith copy of a poster, 18in. × 12in., which has been issued re "Catch Crops" by a midland county. Something of a similar nature that would suit the conditions of your county would seem to be a very useful method of bringing the matter before the public.
Mise le meas,
(Signed) Art O Conchubhair.
[Copy.]
COMHAIRLE THALAMHUIDHEACHTA AGUS CEARD CHONNDAE ROSCOMAIN.
HAY SHORTAGE SOW CATCH CROPS
Suitable Crops to Sow:
1. Hardy Green Starters (Turnips).
2. Broad-leaved Giant Rape.
3. Giant Essex Rye and Winter Vetches.
Small-leaved Dwarf Rape should not be bought, nor Spring Vetches
Sow Hardy Green Starters and Rape immediately, but not after 15th August. The earlier they are sown the earlier they are fit for use.
Sow Rye and Vetches during August and early in September in succession in order that the crop will not get too hard and strong in spring. As the crops come in in the order in which they are numbered above, it is recommended that some of each be sown, and a succession of Rye and Vetches.
Sow per Irish rood from 4 to 16lbs. of Hardy Green Starters, and the same quantity of Giant Broad-leaved Rape, or a mixture of 4 stone of Giant Essex Rye and 3 stone Winter Vetches. All to be sown broadcast.
Sow in any place where turnips or mangolds failed, or in a stubble, or after the oats crop. Rye and Vetches can be sown after digging out a piece of potatoes.
If sown in stubble, apply, per rood, at time of sowing, some farmyard manure, or about 2 cwt. of superphosphates; and early in March shake about 3 or 4 stone of nitrate of soda per rood on all these crops in any ground.
Cathal Ua Caoimh,
Rúnaidhe.
DAIL ÉIREANN.
AIREACHT TALAMHUIDHEACHTA.
(Agricultural Department).
29th July, 1921.
To
The Secretary,
Each County Committee of Agriculture.
A chara,
I send herewith copy of a notice which has been issued to the public Press from this Department re the necessity for the planting of Catch Crops to augment the supply of fodder which will be available next winter and spring. It is perfectly obvious that owing to the shortage of hay and the shortness of straw that there will be a scarcity if the winter is hard and a large quantity of stock has to be carried over to the spring.
I would be glad if you would bring this announcement to the notice of the members of your Committee, who, in the majority of cases, are leading agriculturists in your county, so that in this way concentrated effort can be made.
Le meas mór,
Art O Conchubhair.
DAIL ÉIREANN.
AIREACHT TALAMHUIDHEACHTA.
(Agricultural Department).
29th July, 1921.
The Nation's Forage Supplies.
That there is a serious shortage of forage crops in the country this year is now certain. The hay crop is one of the lightest on record, and the straw yield of the grain crops is much below the average.
Farmers throughout the country are urged to prepare immediately to meet this shortage in their winter and spring stock foods.
Catch crops suitable to the locality should be sown on every farm during the months of August and September after the early potato or grain crops have been saved.
Full information regarding the crops to be sown and the methods of cultivation can be obtained through the County Committees of Agriculture, from whom assistance and advice should be sought without delay. A shortage of forage food supplies results either in starvation or enforced sale of stock in the early spring and consequent glut of the markets and heavy fall in values. The secret of success is preparedness.
Food Supply.
DAIL ÉIREANN.
AIREACHT TALAMHUIDHEACHTA.
(Agricultural Department).
16th November, 1920.
A chara,
While the general situation at the moment as regards Food Supply is not one to cause alarm, yet it is best to make provision against a possible shortage owing to the failure of potatoes in a few areas. Further, there is a need for an extension of wheat culture if we are to become less dependent on foreign supply; this need can best be met by each farmer putting a small percentage of his land under wheat as a national duty if other considerations fail to impress him.
To further this it is suggested that your Committee meet as soon as possible, with your instructors in agriculture and horticulture in attendance, and that the following points get wide publicity and attention in your area.
General Directions Potatoes.
(1) Potatoes to be raised and stored as soon as possible. This should be nearing completion in most counties, but there are many large stocks still visible in the fields.
(2) Owing to prevalence of disease, pits should be turned earlier than usual for sorting, etc.
(3) No potatoes fit for human consumption should be fed to pigs. If the waste in this direction continues as at present there will be undoubted shortage. More use should be made of meal and palm nut cake for fattening pigs, and cooked swedes might in part replace potatoes.
(4) Farmers should be strongly advised as to the desirability of securing "seed" potatoes as soon as possible for planting next spring.
(5) In addition to above, Instructors should be in a position to advise farmers more particularly as follows:
(a) Where stocks of potatoes for consumption and seed are available in their counties.
(b) The benefits to be derived from boxing seed.
(c) How average yield as noted in course of visits from place to place compares with last season, and, as soon as possible, report to Committees on average yield for county.
Wheat.
(1) Instructors should advise farmers as to suitable varieties for late autumn or winter sowing, and for spring sowing.
(a) For winter sowing, Yeomen, Victor, Wilhelmina, and Square Head are useful varieties, and owing to the openness of the season winter sowing is still quite in good time.
(b) For spring sowing Red Marvel, White Marvel, are best for the early spring period, and Red Fife for light land and late spring sowing.
(2)
(a) Indifferent farmers should not be allowed to shelve their responsibilities by the plea that their land is unsuitable for wheat; each type of land has its affinity in wheat, which a little intelligent inquiry can discover.
(b) And neither should good nor bad farmers be put off planting by the idea that milling difficulties are insurmountable. Flour producing plants of a tried type can be produced at a reasonable price.
(3) All wheat seeds should be dressed with copper sulphate solution as a preventative against smut and bunt.
Le meas mór,
(Signed) Art O Conchubhair.
