DRAINAGE (IRELAND).—LEAVE. (Hansard, 8 April 1862)

COLONEL DICKSON

said, he wished to move for leave to bring in a Bill for the amendment of the laws relating to the drainage of land in Ireland. As he understood there was no intention to oppose his Motion, he should not trouble the House with many observations on the subject. The necessity of some such measure was, he believed, universally admitted. For the last two years they had had sad experience of the want of an effective law of the kind. The climate of Ireland for the last few years had changed very much. Enormous quantities of rain had fallen, which seriously affected the crops, as well as the usual arrangements of the farmers. The results were a considerable diminution in the quantity of land under tillage, and in the employment of the rural population. Those circumstances had steadily increased the emigration movement, and thus tended seriously to diminish the national resources. There was also an increasing want of fuel and food. Nothing added so much to the agricultural wealth of this country and the promotion of its prosperity as a really good system of drainage. Many attempts had been made to establish an effective system of drainage in Ireland, but they all failed. A large portion of the country with which he was connected was under water during a great part of the year, and thousands of acres of hay were destroyed from the want of a proper system of drainage. In West-meath and the King's County the estimated expense of draining 15,800 acres was £45,000. The amount actually spent was £66,000, and the debt from the expenses of management, accumulation of interest, &, raised that sum to £107,000. A more simple system, worked by better machinery, in the same manner as under the Bill of last year for England, was absolutely necessary; and he should be ready, if the House allowed him to introduce this Bill, 715 to explain its provision on the second reading.