The organisation of the peasantry by an extension of voluntary associations, which is a condition precedent of social and economic progress, will not, however, suffice to enable them to face and solve the problems with which they are confronted, and whose solution has now become a matter of very serious concern to the British taxpayer.  The condition of our agrarian life clearly indicates the necessity for supplementing voluntary effort with a sound system of State aid to agriculture and industry—­a necessity fully recognised by the governments of every progressive continental country and of our own colonies.  An altogether hopeful beginning of combined self-help and State assistance has been already made.  Those who have been studying these problems, and practically preparing the way for the proper care of a peasant proprietary, have overcome the chief obstacles which lay in their path.  They have gained popular acceptance for the principle that State aid should not be resorted to until organised voluntary effort has first been set in motion, and that any departure from this principle would be an unwarrantable interference with the business of the people, a fatal blow to private enterprise.[7]

The task before the people, and before the State, of placing the new agrarian order upon a permanent basis of decency and comfort is no light one.  Indeed, I doubt whether Parliament realises one-tenth of the problems which the latest land legislation—­by far the best we have yet had—­leaves unsolved.  This becomes only too clear the moment we consider seriously the fundamental question of the relation of population to area in rural Ireland, or, in other words, when we inquire how many people the agricultural land will support under existing circumstances, or under any attainable improvement of the conditions in our rural life.  Roughly speaking, the surface area of the island is 20,000,000 acres, of which 5,000,000 are described in the official returns as ’barren mountain, bog and waste.’  This leaves us with some 15,000,000 acres available for agriculture and grazing, which area is now divided into some 500,000 holdings.  Thus we have an average of thirty acres in extent for the Irish agricultural holding.  But, unhappily, the returns show that some 200,000 of these holdings are from one to fifteen acres in extent.  Nor do the mere figures show the case at its worst.  For it happens that the small holdings in Ireland, unlike those on the Continent, are generally on the poorest land, and the majority of them cannot come within any of the definitions of an ‘economic holding.’