The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-15 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, APRIL 14.
The climate of the south of Ireland, as well as
the soil, is favourable to the cultivation of flax, and
by these who understand its management the crop
can be made most profitable, an acre producing
from £l6 to £2B. It is very desirable that it should
be cultivated now to supply the want of cotton, the
price of which has been more than doubled by the
American war. The Munster Flax Society has
been established for the purpose of aiding the
farmers in the cultivation. At its meeting in Cork
on Thursday, a letter was read from General Sir
Thomas Larcom, Under Secretary, stating that Mr.
Brogan, an inspector of agricultural schools, had
been sent to examine the modes of proceeding in
the flax growing districts, and to report the result
of his observations. He found that the operations
of the Munster Flax Improvement Society were
confined to seven localities in three counties, and.
that nothing had been effected in the counties off
Limerick, Berry, • and Waterford. Three-fourths
of the quantity grown are produced in the county
of Cork. Although flax is a profitable crop, if mis-
managed or neglected it may be the reverse ; hence
it requires the fostering care of a society, in order
to instruct the farmers in its management, and.
show them how to prepare it for the market. There
are at present 11 scotching-mills in connection with
the society. The growers embrace every clams in
the community, from the gentleman farmer with
20 or 30 acres of this crop, to the small cottier
tenants, with their fractions of au acre. The in-
spector recommends that the Government aid which
the society has received should be continued; and
the committee say that if they got £345 by the Ist
of May, they would be able to carry on their opera-
tions. They were well pleased with the inspector's
report: Colonel Beamish stating that it was the
most important document ever presented to them.
Flax is extensively cultivated in the north of Ire-
land, but the home growth is not nearly suffiCient
for the home consumption. Large quantities are
imported, for which money is sent out of the country
that might be spent in employing our own people.
It is therefore a matter of national importance that
the cultivation should be encouraged by the State,
till the skill of the people will enable them to make
the business support itself,

The Cork Reporter states that the Chatsworth
was towed out of the harbour, and proceeded on her
voyage for Queensland, Western Australia. She
took out 451 passengers, 180 of whom, though,
having embarked at Liverpool, were for the most,
part Irish ; the remainder took shipping at
Queenstown, and consisted principally of agri-
culturists and agricultural servants, male and
female, of which latter class there were a good
many, all carefully selected and of unexceptional
moral character. The many advantages which this
extensive and now rapidly rising colony afford„
are attracting to it a class of emigrants who'
have resolved to avail themselves of the liberal in-
ducements in the way of free grants of land which
the Government hold out to settlers there. Forty
acres of land to each member of a family is the
allotted quantity, and is given by the Colonial
Government in fee simple at a mere nominal sum,
the payment of which may be deferred for twoor three
years, at the convenience or option of the settler..
The emigrants who go out by the Chatsworth will be
received on their arrival at the city of Brisbane, More-
ton Bay, by a committee specially formed for the
encouragement to emigration, at the head of which
is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate, the Right Rev,.
Dr. Quin, Bishop of Brisbane, whose brother, the
Rev. Dr. Quin, of Harcourt-street, Dublin, has
taken much pains in, if we may so term it, organ-
ising the arrangements for these emigrants, and
who accompanied them on board and remained up
to the moment of sailing, while the Rev. Mr. Mor-
ley, from the same religious house.in Dublin, goes
out as the spiritual director and chaplain. The pas-
sengers are chiefly from the midland counties of
Ireland, a large portion from King's County.