Extract from Report of Captain Kennedy - November 7, 1848
"I cannot lead the Commissioners to expect other than a rapid
increase of numbers becoming chargeable to the rates; and it cannot under existing
circumstances be otherwise.
"The extent of destitution which I anticipate, and which exists in the Union may be
readily accounted for. Large numbers are employed during the summer cutting and saving
turf, but at a scale of remuneration barely sufficient to support existence. Many more
earn a precarious livelihood by fishing in the summer months, but in the winter they
cannot venture out with their wretched boats and tackle on this iron-bound coast. The
money spent by summer visitors is also wanting - to these must be added all those small
landholders who have been since last spring evicted. I believe that this class alone
numbers 9000 souls, and that 8000 of these are without even shelter, as an eviction seldom
occurs without the demolition of the house. They are swarming over the Union in temporary
sheds and huts, which are unfit for human occupation, and from which they are daily driven
by the inclement weather.
"I do not believe that there are a sufficient number of labourers in this Union to
bring it to the same state of cultivation and productiveness as some parts of the county
of Down and Antrim; and yet the whole labouring population are starving, while hardly an
acre is drained or improved. At a very moderate computation, I believe that four times the
quantity of food might be produced".
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