is faced with the problems of poverty and congestion, of
housing, of increased educational grants, of afforestation, and of
arterial land drainage, will have an almost impossible task in raising
money for these purposes alone. And, let those who can, inform us how an
Irish Parliament and Executive (with all else they will have in hand),
will be able to raise even the L5,000,000 necessary to improve the Irish
Light Railway System; not to speak of the sum at least tenfold greater
which will be required for a complete purchase scheme.

So far we are without that information. The Irish Parliamentary leaders
have not touched upon the point. The pamphleteers are almost equally
silent. Professor Kettle, in his "Home Rule Finance," mentions the
"Nationalisation of Railways" in one line of print, merely stating that
"the project will have to be financed by loans and not out of annual
revenue" (p. 41); and he further remarks, generally (p. 72), "that for
the development of any future policy, approved by her own people,
Ireland relies absolutely on her own fiscal resources." What fiscal
resources, and under what conditions are they obtainable?

In the volume entitled "Home Rule Problems" issued by the Liberal Home
Rule Committee, with a preface by Viscount Haldane, not one word is said
on the subject, though there are chapters on Irish finance, and on Irish
commercial and industrial conditions. Neither has Mr. Stephen Gwynn a
single word on the subject in his "Case for Home Rule," though he makes
the large assertion that "there is no country in the world where
resources are more undeveloped than those of Ireland."

Mr. Erskine Childers[93] merely refers to the Irish railway problem as
one that is "obvious and urgent," "which no Parliament but an Irish
Parliament can deal with, and which calls aloud for settlement."

DETAILS OF RAILWAY TRANSIT PROBLEM.

Let us now look at the problem in more detail; and first is the question
of the railways. The property to be dealt with consists of 3411 miles of
railway, representing a total capital of L45,163,000, of which, at the
date of the Report of the Commission, L2,873,000 paid no dividend; the
gross annual receipts of the whole system being L4,255,000 and the net
receipts L1,690,000, representing a return on the whole capital of 3.77
per cent.[94]

Of these lines, the railways constructed under the Tramways and Light
Railways Acts cover 603 miles, of which 322 are narrow gauge, invo