THE IRISH LAND QUESTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2593, 30 August 1909, Page 2

THE IRISH LAND QUESTION.

SIR H. PLUNKETT’S WORK

Sir H. Plunkett, who, in earlier life, was a rancher in America, retired some little time ago from the vice-Presidency of the Irish Department of Agriculture under; it is alleged, Liberal pressure. It is claimed that he 'has carried out a successful policy quite above party-and class, and his retirement lias been a subject for Unionist criticism of the Government. ORGANISATION OP FARMERS.

Hardly any ponular movement in Ireland has attracted more attention in recent years, writes G. W. Russell, than the .rapidly-growing movement for the organisation of farmers in cooperative associations. The co-operative movement in Ireland was started by Sir Horace Plunkett, who reversed the custom usual in other countries by doing his work first and witting its propaganda literature in later years as an after thought. He returned from America in 1889, and began a solitary' compaign among the Irish farmers. He has left it on record that he addressed fifty meetings before he started his co-operative dairy society. When he could point to one successful association the hardest part of his work was over, for the conservative farmer always asks if there is anything of the kind working elsewhere, and if there is nothing to point to, the farmer refuses to* lead a- forlorn nope. The proud consciousness of being in the* foremost files of time is no lure to his spirit. ’’ . ~ , , Sir Horace Plunkett soon attracted helpers. There were a few people in Ireland at that time who were sick of the class war, and who were not very ardent politicians, and who saw clearly that whether, the* Irish farmer .owned his land or paid rent for it, whether Ireland governed itself or was governed, a complete revolution would have to be made in rural business methods. _ In 1894 was formed the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, which was formed to carry on the work of organising the farmers for business purposes, which had by that time grown too heavy for one volunteer to cope with. The '1.A.0.5. has two classes of membcrs —society members and individual members —the latter class composed of people who sympathise with its work and pay an .annual,subscription. The society members elect ■ threequarters of the . committee 01 management and practically control its policy. • The objects of the 1.A.0.5. are to organise farmers into co-operative associations whenever the conditions of their industry are such that production would be increased or an economy effected by exchanging individual action for associated effort in production, sale, or purchase. The movement has grown like the proverbial mustard tree, from the small seed sown in 1889, when the first society was formed, and now its ramifications extend into every county in Ireland. The societies/at the .beginning, of October, 1908, numbered 9'61; of these 302 were dairy societies, 58 unregistered auxiliary creameries,-* 175 were agricultural societies, 273 were jredit associations, 34 were poultry associations, 15. were flax, and. 103 were home industries, or for miscellaneous purposes. There were .also three federations. DAIRY CO-OPERATION. ,

The societies which bulk largest in membership and trade are the co-oper-ative dairy societies. A revolution was •effected in butter-making by the introduction, about a quarter of a century ago, ■of the steam separator, which separates the cream from the milk by centrifugal action. Under the old system of home butter-making it took, on an average, three gallons of milk to make a pound of butter. By employing a steam separator, with its cleaner , skimming, two and a half gallons, or less sufficed. The use of the new invention necessitated the entrance of the capitalist, or else a large combination of the farmers who could afford to erect buildings and purchase the expensive plant required. When the private capitalist owned the creamery he took care to reserve the largest portion of the profits for himself, and after a little time, when the farmers, seduced I by the initial good prices had dropped their old methods, and lost their local markets, when their churns were 'rotting or growing geraniums in the garden, they were at the mercy of the proprietor, who paid for the milk just what he thought fit. ' ' : . ’ Under the co-operative system, which speedily became popular, the farmers became themselves the owners of the creamery and appointed their own manager, and through a committee ’ elected by themselves controlled the undertaking, ' working it with the energy of self-inter-est. In Irish co-operative dairy societies each farmer takes, . as a rule, as many £1 shares as he has milk cows. He is paid interest on his shares, and besides the payments for milk, which are made monthly, he is entitled, at the close of the season, to share his profits on the sal© of butter, which.- are divisible proportionately to the value of the milk supplied b- each farmer. The turnover of the co-operative dairy societies in 1906 was £1 507,000. AGRICULTURAL BANKS.

One of the most popular forms agricultural co-operation in Ireland takes is in the establishment of credit societies, or agricultural banks. These are very simple in their constitution. A number of farmers join together in a society which is registered under’the Friendly Societies Act without shares and with unlimited liability. The members are made jointly and severally liable for the debt of the association. They get deposits from private individuals or borrow money from a large bank, of from a Government department.. on the strength of the unlimited guarantee of all the members for its safe keeping. This is lent out to members who require loans, by a committee elected by themselves. It has generall" been found possible* to borrow money from 3 to 4 per cent., and to lend it .at the popular rate of ;w; penny per pound, per month.

Money* is only lent for profitable and productive purposes or to, effect some economy, and the sureties of the borrower are bound to see that the man who receives a loan applies it to the purpose for which it was approved. The Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture have shewn their approval of this clas6 of society by advancing loans to them at 3 per cent., the amounts so lent varying from £SO to £IOO. These societies are most numerous in congested districts, and indeed they s-eem to flourish most and to be best managed in the poorest parishes. They have 'saved mahy farmers firun the clutches of the “gombeen man,” the typical Irish* usurer, who is not by any means an extinct species yet, though the advance* of an organised rural civilisation is unsuitable to his habits.