The problem of canals and inland navigation in Ireland is a minor one,
but the same principles largely apply. The Royal Commission[101]
recommended that all the chief waterways, canals, and rivers necessary
for inland transport should be purchased and remain under the control of
the State, the controlling authority, however, not themselves, to become
carriers on any waterways. At the same time, they strongly urged that
the problem of arterial drainage and relief from floods should not be
treated separately, but that the control of drainage works should be
under the same central authority as that which is to control waterways
and navigation.
It is not necessary to refer in detail to the Report. Apart from the
sum necessary to buy out the existing owners of canals and waterways,
towards which £2,451,346 had been contributed from private sources, the
Commissioners contemplated a further expenditure of about £200,000 on
new works. In addition the sum of £500,000 would be required, on a
moderate estimate for drainage and the prevention of floods. The
pressing nature of the latter problem is once more emphatically
evidenced by the wholesale injury to property and the public health by
the recent flooding of the basins of the Shannon, Barrow, Bann, and
other rivers. Here, again, we have problems which it is idle to expect
an Irish Parliament to solve satisfactorily for years to come, or,
indeed, ever. Ways and means must be an effectual bar. Drainage and
navigation form only one problem out of a dozen facing a Home Rule
Government needing the raising of enormous capital. Probably the
Commissioners conducting the Canals inquiry, who were persons of all
shades of political opinion, were well aware that only under the present
system of State credit could the financial difficulties be overcome.
According to their report, the State (_i.e._ the Government of the United
Kingdom) were to acquire the control, which was to be carried out by an
Act of Parliament, naming the Waterways Commissioners, "who should be
persons disassociated from party politics."
The one dissentient out of twenty-one signatories, Lord Farrer,
significantly adds that he does not favour a "charge on the public purse
and new Boards of Management _until a purely Irish elected authority has
agreed to pay for them_." Precisely; Lord Farrer has looked ahead. Will
an Irish elected authority agree to pay for these boons, and will they
be able to pay? That is a question which will cause some searching of
hearts amongst all interested in Ireland's welfare;--in these pages we
have attempted to give an answer.