Note 72 — XIII UNIONIST POLICY IN RELATION TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN IRELAND

In this connection attention may be called to the remarkable increase of wealth in Ireland in the past twenty years. The deposits in the Joint Stock Banks have increased from £33,700,000 in 1891 to £56,011,000 in 1911, the balances in the Post Office Savings Banks in Ireland from £3,878,000 in 1891 to £12,253,000 in 1911, and the number of accounts from 261,352 in 1891 to 662,589 at the end of 1910. Irish investments in Government Funds, India Stocks, and Guaranteed Land Stock have increased from £26,609,000 in 1891 to £41,363,000 in 1911. But more noteworthy still, perhaps, is the increase in Irish trade. Figures are only available since 1904, but in that period Irish imports have increased from £54,078,399 to £65,044,477—an increase of £10,966,078 in seven years. Irish exports have increased in the same period from £49,712,400 to £65,844,255, or an increase of £16,131,155. Or, if we take the aggregate trade, there has been an increase from £103,790,799 in 1904 to £130,888,732 in 1910, an increase of £27,097,933. In other words, the aggregate import and export trade in Ireland in the year 1910 amounted to nearly £28 sterling per head of population, while the corresponding figure for Great Britain is just over £20. These figures are, I submit, eloquent testimony that the general policy of the Imperial Parliament in relation to Ireland during recent years has been wisely conceived, and that the successful solution of the "Irish Problem" is to be found in the steady pursuit of methods which have already achieved such striking results.