In 1907 the board purchased 121,213 acres for the sum of £161,684, which it is now cutting up into small farms and moving to them families which are unable to make a living in the mountain districts. Thus far 544 families have been moved in this way and placed in comfortable homes at an average cost of $435 per family, not including the price of the land; 1,372 dwelling-houses have been erected, and 1,266 buildings on these and other farms already occupied have been erected at the expense of the board. In addition to furnishing a farm and a cottage the board gives its protégés, wherever it is necessary, cows, goats, pigs, and chickens. All this is paid for by money advanced from the public treasury, which is reimbursed by the beneficiary at the rate of 3½ per cent a year. Of this 2¾ per cent is interest upon the investment, and three-fourths of one per cent annually goes into a sinking fund to redeem at maturity the bonds issued to furnish the money. The average annual payment by the families which have thus been removed is £17 10s. or $87.50 in our money. The people who have been benefited can sell their new homes or dispose of them by inheritance so long as the interest is paid promptly, but they cannot divide them.
I have before me a statement showing each transaction, and find that the following figures represent the number of acres given:
| 176 acres | 15 acres | 206 acres |
| 174 acres | 438 acres | 245 acres |
| 362 acres | 177 acres | 34 acres |
| 371 acres | 76 acres | 67 acres |
| 254 acres | 271 acres | 249 acres |
| 318 acres | 311 acres | 76 acres |
| 240 acres | 90 acres | 152 acres |
| 136 acres | 66 acres | 118 acres |
| 119 acres | 111 acres | 106 acres |
These figures illustrate the size of the farms that are being provided, and the acreage varies according to the fertility of the land. The board intends to give each of its protégés what is called “an economic holding”; that is, sufficient land to support his family and produce a surplus sufficient to enable him to pay his interest and lay by a little something for a rainy day.
During 1908 it has moved eighty families from County Galway to County Roscommon and placed them all upon fertile farms, in comfortable new cottages of four rooms each, at an average cost of one thousand dollars, not including the price of the land. In addition to this most of the families have been granted loans varying from twenty-five to sixty dollars as working capital, to provide tools, implements, necessary furniture, and other articles.
In addition to this general work in more than eight hundred parishes in counties Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Donegal, and Sligo, local committees have been appointed consisting of the parish priest, the Church of Ireland rector, the parish doctor, and one of the magistrates, who have immediate supervision over local conditions and make recommendations for the application of small sums of money for the improvement of the comforts and health of the people. These local committees are authorized to repair and improve the homes of farmers, fishermen, and other workingmen where it can be done economically, and to erect new homes for them whenever it is necessary, upon certain conditions, which involve a radical change in the habits of most of the Irish peasants. In order to secure benefits of this kind the family is required to remove the dunghill from its usual place in front of the door, to clean up all around the cabin and keep the place in order, to keep the pig, the cattle, and the chickens out of the house, and to keep the interior in a state of sanitary cleanliness. Materials are furnished to cottagers who are willing to make these improvements for themselves.
It is astonishing that so many peasants will fight such improvements and often resist attempts that are made to clean up their places and make them more comfortable. The dunghill has always been in front of the door and the offal and garbage from the house have been dumped upon it for generations. They are accustomed to the sickening stench and, as one of the inspectors told me, they find it difficult to get along without it. “They wouldn’t be happy unless there was a bad smell,” he remarked. But in most cases the conditions are cheerfully accepted and the improvements appreciated. Last year 1,193 cottages were improved in this manner at a cost of £31,812.
During the greater part of the year more than three thousand men are employed by the Congested Districts Board in the counties along the Atlantic coast, roadmaking, draining lands, fencing, building houses, bridges, and other improvements, and in planting larches and other trees that grow in this climate. This has not only kept them busy at good wages, but has made important permanent improvements. The total area of land drained last year was 12,089 acres at a cost of £11,391.
The amount of money spent on roads, bridges, piers, docks, and other public works during the year was £7,102.
One of the most interesting features of the work is the fisheries. There is an abundance of fish all along the coast and there is always a demand for them in the London market, either fresh or cured, but the peasants until recently have had no boats or nets and were unable to raise the money to provide them. The villages on the shores of the coves and bays had no landing places for boats, no facilities for storing or curing fish, and all of these things the board is now trying to provide. It has several methods of doing so. Wherever necessary docks have been constructed with warehouses, packing-houses, and cooper shops, and the board has agencies for furnishing salt, ice, and other necessaries for the fishing business at cost prices. Docks have been built at a dozen places costing from $500 to $15,000, which are free to the public and bring no return.