t danger to the future of agricultural Ireland. As
the majority of them, as at present constituted, do not provide the
physical basis of a decent standard of living, the question arises, how
are they to be improved? Putting aside emigration, which at one period
was necessary and ought to have been aided and controlled by the State,
but which is now no longer a statesman's remedy, there is obviously no
solution except by the migration of a portion of the occupiers, and the
utilisation of the vacated holdings in order to enable the peasants who
remain to prosper--much as a forest is thinned to promote the growth of
trees. In typical congested districts this operation will have to be
carried out on a much larger scale than is generally realised, for a
considerable majority of families will have to be removed, in order to
allow a sufficient margin for the provision of adequate holdings for
those who remain. In some cases, there are large grazing tracts in close
proximity to the congested area which might be utilised for the
re-settlement, but where this is not so and the occupiers of the vacated
holdings have to migrate a considerable distance, the problem becomes
far more difficult. I need not dwell upon the administrative
difficulties of the operation, which are not light. I may assume, also,
that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable land somewhere. I
do not myself attach much weight to the unwillingness of the people to
leave their old holdings for better ones, or to the alleged objection of
the clergy to allow their parishioners to go to another parish. More
serious is the possible opposition of those who live in the vicinity of
the unoccupied land about to be distributed, and who feel that they have
the first claim upon the State in any scheme for its redistribution with
the help of public credit. Mr. Parnell promoted a company with the sole
object of practically demonstrating how this problem could be solved. A
large capital was raised, and a large estate purchased; but the company
did not effect the migration of a single family. Still these are minor
considerations compared with the larger one, to which I must briefly
refer.

Under the Land Act of 1903 much has been done to facilitate the transfer
of peasants to new farms, but it is obvious that land cannot be handed
over as a gift from the State to the families which migrate. They will
become debtors for the value of the land itself, less perhaps a small