[13]
What is even more refreshing is the evidence which goes to show that
the population left behind in Ireland has become more prosperous. For
the first time since 1841, the Census now shows an increase--small,
indeed, but real--of inhabited houses in Ireland, and a corresponding
increase in the number of families[14].
It is the first slight rally of a country sick almost unto death. We
must not exaggerate its significance. Ireland has fallen very low, and
she is not yet out of danger. There is no real sign of rise in the
extraordinarily small yield of the Irish income tax. That yield shows
us a country, with a tenth of the population, which has only a
thirtieth of the wealth of Great Britain--a country, in a word, at
least three times as poor[15]. The diminution in the Irish pauper
returns is entirely due to Old-age Pensions.[16] The much-advertised
increase in savings and bank deposits, always in Ireland greatly out of
proportion to her well-being, is chiefly eloquent of the extraordinary
lack of good Irish investments.
The birth-rate in Ireland, although the Irish are the most prolific
race in the world, is still--owing to the emigration of the
child-bearers--the lowest in Europe.
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