The South Isles of Aran Part 7

The following instructions to persons applying for loans under the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund, and Sea Fisheries Fund Acts, 37 and 38 Vict.

chap. 86; 45 Vict. chap. 16; and 47 and 48 Vict. chap. 21, would be read with delight and acted upon with avidity were it not for the nasty note that appears at the foot of so flaring an advertis.e.m.e.nt.

[Sidenote: LOANS FOR FISHERY PURPOSES.]

"I. Loans will be made as heretofore for the purchase or repairs of boats, vessels, or fishing gear, on the security of borrowers and persons to be joined with them as sureties in a joint and several bond and promissory notes.

"II. In _special cases_, where the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries shall deem it expedient that a new fishing vessel should be supplied to a borrower instead of money, they may, with the consent of the Lord Lieutenant, recommend loans on the security of the borrowers, and on the security of the fishing vessel to be supplied. In such cases the borrowers must give to the Commissioners of Public Works a joint and several bond or promissory note as the case may be, for the amount of the loan, and also execute a deed providing that the vessel shall be registered in the name of the Commissioners of Public Works, and so continue registered until the loan with interest, and any expense incurred, shall be repaid, and also providing that in default of payment of any of the instalments, by which such loan shall be made repayable, or in default of the borrowers preserving the same in proper order and condition, or in case the said vessel should become in the opinion of the said Commissioners a deficient security for the amount of the loan for the time being unpaid, the said Commissioners may cause such boat or vessel to be sold.

"III. Time for repaying any loan not exceeding ten years.

"IV. Repayment by half yearly instalments with interest at the rate of 2.5 per cent. per annum.

[Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES.]

"NOTE.--It must be observed that loans under rule No. 2. can only be recommended _under very_ _exceptional circ.u.mstances, and to a very limited extent_, as the funds available for loans for new vessels are quite insufficient to meet large demands. It will, therefore, be impossible for the inspectors to do more in carrying out this rule than to recommend loans on the security of vessels in a few cases only, where very exceptional circ.u.mstances exist, and only in cases of new first-cla.s.s fishing vessels being provided for with thoroughly experienced fishermen of good character.

"No loans for the purchase of gear will be made without personal security, as laid down by the rules already in force, see No. 1.

"By order,

"GEORGE COFFEY,

"Secretary.

"Fisheries Office, Dublin Castle, February, 1886."

[Sidenote: IRISH FISHERIES--IRISH PARLIAMENT.]

Of the immensity of the fisheries we can form no estimate. But to the islanders the fisheries are worthless without boats, and without the means of obtaining boats; without funds, and without the means of obtaining funds. Except "under very exceptional circ.u.mstances, and to a very limited extent," they are unable to launch out into the deep and let down their nets for a draught. It is said by one party that a different state of things would prevail had the Irish people an Irish Parliament. That may be so and it may not be so; but one thing is certain, that whilst in 1887 no bonus of any kind can be obtained, in 1787 bonuses of many kinds could be obtained, and were obtained. In the 27th year of George III., A.D. 1787, an Irish Act was pa.s.sed "for the encouragement of the fishery usually called the deep sea fishery." The marginal note of that section, a section too long to repeat, states that "bounties will be given, 80 guineas for the greatest quant.i.ty of herrings caught by the crew of any one vessel, and imported between the 1st of June and the 31st of December in any one year; 60 guineas for the next greatest quant.i.ty, 40 guineas for the next, and 20 guineas for the next, to be paid on the 1st of January following." By the same Act bounties of four shillings a barrel were authorized to be given for herrings; and by another section, the fourteenth, three shillings and threepence by the hundredweight was allowed for all dried cod, ling, and other fish mentioned therein. Bounties, however, have long since been discouraged by political economists, and loans have long since been discouraged by other economists, and between those scientists money for the improvement of the Aran fishery was never so hard to be got at as at this present time.

[Sidenote: THE ARAN FISHERIES--TRAWLING.]

From the coastguard return it would appear that the Galway coastguard division is guarded by five coastguard stations, two of them being on the Aran islands, in which there has been an increase in 1886 of two second cla.s.s and sixteen third cla.s.s boats solely engaged in fishing.

The trawlers work from Barna to the islands of Aran. That trawling injures the supply of fish is insisted upon by the one party and denied by the other. A court of public inquiry was held in Galway, where the entire question was investigated; the result of which investigation will form the subject of a special report. We shall only observe that the Scotch Fishery Board has prohibited trawling in some places in Scotland.

"In the Galway Bay trawling was prohibited for a number of years in about half the bay. For about four years it was not followed at all, and, so far as the evidence at public inquiries could be relied on, there was no improvement in the fisheries during the cessation of this mode of fishing in either the whole, or part of the bay. In the case of Dublin Bay trawling has been prohibited for nearly forty-four years; and the question arises whether the fisheries of that bay have increased in that period.

"In other bays no trawling has ever been carried on; and the present state of the fisheries in such places will have to be carefully inquired into."[19]

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Report of Inspectors of Irish Fisheries for 1887, p. 10.

[19] Report of Inspectors of Fisheries, 1887, p. 8.

CHAPTER VI.

"The darksome pines on yonder rocks reclined Wave high and murmur to the hollow wind."

POPE.

Having thus far spoken of the wealth that might be realized by the islanders from the waters that surround their islands, let us turn to speak of the wealth that might be realized by the islanders from the islands themselves--wealth produceable neither by patches of potatoes, nor by tillage, nor by minerals, nor by pasturage. On the islands are vast terraces of naked rocks, and there are vast terraces of rocks not naked on which grew those forests of oak, of yew, and of fir of which we have already spoken, when treating of Druidism.

[Sidenote: RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.]

To re-afforest the disafforested wilderness has of late occupied the thoughts of the thoughtful in our country. Dr. Lyons, for some time M.P.

for the city of Dublin, gave to it much of his attention. He has been taken away, but his mantle has fallen upon another. Dermot O'Conor Donelan, Esq., J.P., of Sylane, near Tuam, teaches us how the people of other countries are enriched by their forests. Having made a tour through the unwooded mountains of Connemara, he subsequently in the present year made a tour through the wooded mountains of the Grand Duchy of Baden. His inquiries and the result of his inquiries in that prosperous country he published in a series of letters in the _Irish Times_ and _Freeman's Journal_. To give those letters _in extenso_, however instructive, would fill too many of our over-filled pages, but we may be permitted to make a few quotations from them.

[Sidenote: FORESTS IN BADEN.]

"It is a noteworthy fact," writes Mr. Donelan, "that from the cla.s.s of lands similar to those that lie waste in Ireland, the recent progress of Germany is generally believed to proceed. Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine have a combined population of 40,644,000. The labour connected with the forests of those countries and their products have been estimated to be worth 9,450,000; and those earnings suffice for the maintenance of about 300,000 families." He then forms a painful contrast between Baden and Ireland--between the German mountain districts, and the mountain districts of the same kind in Ireland where there is a similarity of soil; but there the similarity ends.

[Sidenote: FOREST INDUSTRIES.]

"The mountains and bogs of Connemara, with the roots and remains of trees scattered everywhere amongst them, are lying there in their bare and melancholy desolation, and but for the presence of some miserable hovels, the whole scene might be inside the Arctic circle. The mountains of Schwartzwald, however, are covered with forests of silver fir, and by their vast supplies of timber are creating vast industries. In a tour which I made through it some months ago, I observed that almost every branch of wood-work was in active operation, and for miles together the rattle of machinery was hardly ever silent. The manufacture of paper from wood, which is comparatively new, has already a.s.sumed very large proportions in South-Western Germany. Second cla.s.s wood-ends, etc., for paper-making, can be had for about eight shillings a ton; while straw must always cost from 30_s._ to 2 10_s._ This difference will gradually transfer the manufacture of paper and papier-mache to this and similar forest districts. Within the last few years several mills have been established for the manufacture of cellulose from wood. They have been found successful, and it is expected that this will soon be among the most important of the forest industries. A list of the objects of which cellulose is the basis would form a curious example of recent invention.

In the American Patent Office no less than one hundred and twenty patents have been taken out in connection with cellulose since 1870.

Gun-cotton, collodion, celluloid, artificial ivory, handles for knives, etc; dental plates, cuffs, collars, shoe-tips and in-soles, billiard b.a.l.l.s, are a few names taken from a long list, and which will give an idea of the number of trades this one material is establishing in many cities and towns of Germany. Celluloid can be made as hard as ivory or be spread on like paint; it is water proof, air proof, and acid proof.

It can be pressed or stamped, planed as wood, turned in a lathe, and it can be transparent or opaque.

"I am not able to state the quant.i.ty of basket and wicker-work used in the United Kingdom, but at the lowest computation it must be several millions worth a year, the imports alone being very large.

[Sidenote: RE-AFFORESTING ARAN.]

"It would not be possible to enumerate," he writes, "the number of industries which supplies of timber are capable of developing. Some of those would spring up within twelve or fourteen years, and which are further capable of enormous development. Poplar grows rapidly in Ireland; in twelve years the thinnings are of considerable size, and, according to Mr. Herbert's report on the forestry of Russia (Blue Book, commercial, 31, 1883), it appears that from poplar most of the paper exported from Russia is manufactured. The consumption of paper in the United Kingdom must be over 30,000,000 a year, and if it be probable that mountain forests are likely to be the scene of a considerable portion of its production in the future, what an opportunity is there then of utilizing by means of forestry the waste lands and the cheap labour of Donegal and Connemara. Ever since 1800 the question of the waste lands has been before the public. It was reported on in 1812, and again by the Devon Commission of 1840. Every writer on the industrial resources of Ireland had paid it particular attention. It was mentioned by Sir Richard Griffith, by Munns, by Dutton, and even before 1800 by Arthur Young. There is hardly a Government in Europe which has not undertaken the work of reclaiming and afforesting waste lands."

[Sidenote: FORESTS FORMERLY IN ARAN.]

So writes the author of those interesting letters, and he dissipates an illusion which is prevalent amongst us, namely, that to turn planting into profit requires long years and gross timber. On the contrary, as his observations prove, in their earlier years of growth forests will supply many industries for which old timber is unsuited. A great objection to re-afforesting mountains and rocky districts is the length of time that is generally supposed must elapse before so gigantic a work could become remunerative; but Mr. O'Conor Donelan shows that no great length of time is necessary, and that after a very few years timber would be suitable for the works of which he speaks. Would that the Government would take his words to heart, and do in Ireland what German statesmen have done in Germany! There are men amongst us who would fain believe that Aran is too much exposed to the westerly winds to admit of timber being grown on the islands; but the great roots old in the earth tell of the great trees that grew in Aran many centuries ago.

CHAPTER VII.

SUPERSt.i.tIONS OF THE GROVE.

"Oh the Oak, and the Ash, and the bonnie Ivy tree Flourish best at hame in the North Countrie."

[Sidenote: SUN-WORSHIP IN ARAN.]

In the present chapter we propose to give a few of the legends with which groves were enriched when the worship of the sun (Baal) was the religion of the world--legends yet remembered in Aran. In the groves they offered sacrifices, and "burnt," writes the Prophet Hosea, "incense under the oak and the poplar and the turpentine tree [the pine], because the shadow thereof was good."[20] And we are told that "Abraham planted a grove in Bersabee, and there called upon the Name of the everlasting G.o.d."[21]

[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF BAAL IN ARAN.]

The selection of such places originated, no doubt, in the fact that the gloom of the forest was calculated to excite awe, and because they considered that the spirits of the departed hovered over the places where the bodies were buried; and it was common to bury the dead under trees, as appears from the eighth verse of the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis, where it is stated that when Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, died, she was buried at the foot of Bethel under an oak tree, and the name of that place was called "The Oak of Weeping;" and when Saul, the first King of Israel, fell at the battle of Gilboe, his bones were buried under an oak tree at Jabesh.[22] Amongst the Hebrews it was common, before the time of Moses, to plant groves. But the idolatrous nations planted them also; and groves and the places of idol-worship soon became convertible terms. For the purpose, therefore, of extirpating idolatry, the Lord thus spoke through Moses: "Thou shalt plant no grove, nor any tree near the altar of the Lord thy G.o.d."[23]