§ MR. J. DEVLINI beg to ask the Vice-President of the Board of Agriculture (Ireland) whether his attention has been directed to the Annual Report of the Flax Supply Association, submitted at a meeting held in Belfast on the 31st May, 1907, in which it is stated that during the year 1906 Ireland imported over 45,000 tons of flax, and that, with immense capabilities, Ireland only provides about 23 per cent. of the raw material used in one of her leading industries; and whether, in view of the opinion of experts that Ireland is the best flax-producing country in the world, he will say what the Irish Agricultural Department has done and proposes to do to remedy the present state of affairs in regard to flax-growing in Ireland.
THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. BIRRELL Bristol, N.)The attention of the Department of Agriculture has been called to the annual report of the Flax Supply Association. The total supply of flax in Ireland in 1906 was about 45,000 tons, the imports amounting to about 33,000 tons, and not 45,000 as stated in the Question. The Department have for several years been doing everything in their power to assist the flax-growing industry, and their efforts have had the cordial co-operation of the Ulster flax growers and local authorities. Their schemes include prizes to growers, scotch-mill owners, and employees, experiments in manures and seed, the dissemination of information, the promotion of co-operative flax societies, and other measures.