Any scheme giving self-government to Ireland must seriously affect the
problem of local transit and transport, by rail and water, which all
parties in Ireland agree to be pressing and important. Nor is it merely
a local question. As recent returns show, the trade between Ireland and
Great Britain has of late years enormously increased, to the great
advantage of both; for if Irish farmers profit by the export of beef,
mutton, milk, eggs, butter, bacon and other articles, Great Britain has
the benefit of a near food supply within the United Kingdom. Nor does
any one doubt that this trade is capable of enormous increase. The
improvement of Irish agricultural methods, the growth in England of a
town population, the increased price of the necessaries of life, are
some of the factors pointing in this direction.
If this trade is to expand, Irish traffic routes and facilities with
Great Britain must be improved and increased, especially as the articles
carried are largely of a perishable kind. Moreover, the internal traffic
of Ireland, by rail, waterways, and canals is capable of and needs great
development, as witness the recent Reports of the Viceregal Commission
on Irish Railways, and of the Royal Commission on Canals and
Waterways.[92] The problem of inland navigation is again intimately
bound up with that of arterial drainage, as the Commissioners have
reported. It is then strange to find, that on these pressing questions
of first importance, there is an almost absolute silence on the part of
those who advocate Home Rule in and out of Parliament.