Some Facts About Ulster

New Zealand Tablet, 11 April 1912, Page 53

Some Facts About Ulster

:In his address at the St. Patrick's Day. demonstration in Sydney Mr. R. Hazleton,' M.P., dealt at some length with the glaring misstatements made a few, days previously at an anti-Home ,-Rule meeting in that city. The meeting (said Mr. Hazleton) ; was treated to a set of the most misleading statistics. Just let me give you a few ;figures on the subject.touched, upon. I take the three heads in connection with Ulster that were referred , to—wealth, crime, and prosperity. It was said that the only place in Ireland worth taxing by an Irish Parliament is Ulster. What are the facts? I have them here in black and white. The ratable valuation per head of . the provinces of , Ireland gives Leinster first and Ulster only the same as Munster. In other words, Ulster, instead of being the richest province in Ireland, comes a long way after Leinster, and only equals Munster, " The city of Belfast, it is true, has ‘ a number of flourishing industries the .linen industry that was encouraged by Act of Parliament, whilst the woollen and other industries of the South of Ireland were deliberately destroyed by Act of Parliament. But what is - the condition even of the linen industry , and others in Belfast to-day ? - Most of the factory, hands are girls and women, who receive an average wage of from 10s to 12s per week, and figures show that on an average these unfortunate people die at the age of 39. The city of Belfast, too, is.over-

ciowded.>- These and other unfortunate - circumstances require changing, and the best hope of effecting. this is -in; an Irish Parliament. v - \ : ~ Take the prosperity of Ulster generally.’ • There are nine counties in the province, and within the last 50 years, whilst the<population of Belfast has increased the population of these nine counties has diminished by over one million, not including those who fled from Ireland: during; the famine years. The diminution of the population of Ulster -is at present greater than that of the other provinces, so that wo find to-day from socalled prosperous Ulster there are proportionately - and actually more emigrants than from any other/province in Ireland. Then there is the question, of law-abiding Ulster. The official figures for the last available year show that in 1909 the indictable offences in Ulster were greater than in the other three provinces of the; whole of Ireland, and that in the Orange counties of ' Antrim and Down the proportion was higher than in any other country. - • Again, we hear about the intelligence - of Ulster. Ulster is not the province of education and intelligence because the census of 1909 showed that the percentage of persons over -five years of age who were able to read .and write was less in Ulster than in Munster or Leinster, and only a little above the province of Connaught. And, according to the latest returns, at the election of 1910, there, were more illiterate voters in Ulster than in the whole of the rest of Ireland put together. 1 ?.