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Show THE THRIFTY IRISH. V Statistics Prove Them to Be Great Workers. It is the custom of many Anglo-maniacs to asseiV that the backwardness of Ireland is not due to the universal disinclination Ar work on the part of the. Celt. Eloquent testimony to the honesty and industry of the Irish tenants is contained in the. report recently issued by the Irish laud commissioners, showing show-ing the payments im'-de under the various vari-ous acts by which ' the tenants have, with state assistaaice, become the owners own-ers of their holdings. The total amount payable in November Novem-ber last in respect of advances under the purchase act of 1885 for the half year's installments which had then become be-come due was $924,000. payable by about 25,380 tenants. On July 1 last n this had been paid with the exception of $14,445, which was- still outstanding from 313 purchasers. , With regard to the payment of in stallments under the purchase act of '91, the amount due on November 1, from 46,654 tenants,, was $1,775,955. Of this big sum there remained to be paid on July 1, only $11,055, which was owing by 273 tenants. Coming to the lar.d act of 1903, it appears ap-pears that of the installments payable under the act the. amount falling due from 19,065 purchasers was $995,475. All this had been pa;xl on July'l, with the exception of the trifling outstanding balance of $4,070 owing by seventy-four tenants. These figures show that of an aggregate of $3,694,830 owing by 91.095 new tenants proprietors, the comparatively compara-tively small sum of $29,270 only was owing on July 1 less than 1 per cent. There is no ; misunderstanding the tremendous significance of these figures. fig-ures. Here we have a people who some years ago were, enduring eviction by wholesale, misery and starvation, rather rath-er than pay the exorbitant rents de-n:anded de-n:anded by landlords now cheerfully aii promptly paying the installments of purchase money which enables them to become the owners of the soil they till. It justifies to the full the no-rent campaign conducted through long and bitter years. |