The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 443, 19 October 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19.

Thic present state of Ireland is one calculated to cause grave concern to all thoughtful persons. That the great bulk of the population of an important ami integral portion of the British Ecnpire should exist in a chrouic state bordering on famine is surely a melancholy state of tilings. That chronic misery should breed discontent and disaffection is as surely not to be wondered at. Priinn facie the governing classes of any country must take at least their share of blame for such a lamentable state of affairs ftß is chronic in Ireland. All writers who have Hc:\ able to free themselves from the shibboleths of party a:c agreed that the system of land tenure now prevailing in that country—a system unknown elsewhere in the world—is the most prolific parent of many of tin evils under which she is suffering. In this connection wo commend to our readers' attention the following remarks which we extract from the Wairarapa Standard, a newspaper whose conductor deservedly holds a place in the foremost rank of journalists and enlightened political observers :—

There are no peasant proprietors in Ireland, but there are 5 ( J2,000 tenant farmers there. Mr Thornton says appropriately " Ireland is one of the few countries in which there neither are, nor ever wore, peasant properties." The Irish cottar lias been driven as a rule to live on potatoes, and too often died miserably when potatoes failed. He has been driven by an absence of other employment to beggar himself by keen competition for the possession of the soil. Jt may be asserted without fear of contradiction that in no part of Europo have landlords exacted so much from their tenantry, and done so little for their welfare and comfort. The tenant, sis a rule is rack-rented, and holds his land as long as he pays his rent, and only in the Province of Ulster is he pkced in the position of being enabled to claim compensation for improvements if ejected. He has no incentive to produce more from the land he rents than will pay his landlord and will save himself and his family from starvation ; because any additional produce would subject him to increased exactions. A bad season occurring, evictions become numerous, and the families evicted often lose, on their eviction, the work of their lives. Lord Duilerin stated the condition of the Irish peasantry some time since very forcibly in the House of Lords. " What is the spectacle presented to us by Ireland ?" said his Lordship. "It is that of millions of persons whose only dependence and whose chief occupation is agriculture—for the most part cultivating their lands—that is sinking their past and their future upon yearly tenancies. But what is a yearly tenacy ? Why, it is an impossible tenure—a tenure which, if its terms were to be literally interpreted, no Christian man wtuld offer, and none but a madman would accept." This yearly tenure explains the reason why the Irish people aro the worst housed nation in Europe.

The House of Commons in the begining ot August last passed a Bill deaiing with the distress in Ireland, called " The Irish Compensation Bill," which extended however only over some of the most distressed portions of the Emerald Isle. The Bill provided that where the only reason why the tenant could not pay his rent was from the unusual failmv- of the crops, and was willing to make terms with the landowner as to arrears of rent, and the landlord refused to make any terms with the tenant so unable to pay, that a term of 16 months should clnpso before he was ejected, unless the landlord paid the ejected tenants for their improvements. The Lords threw out the Bill by 232 to 51. They declared the power asked by Mr Gladstone was confiscation of their property and their rights forgetting that they were after all only copyholders. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Peterborough, St. Albans', and St. David's helped to swell the majority, while 15 spiritual peers refused to vote. What effect this retention of their powers of ejectment, sanctioned by the approval of the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, may have on the peers is hard to predict; but the effect on the Irish people is very clear. It has made them combine as the English people did against the Corn Laws. We have only two observations to make. The Earl of Beaconsfk'ld and his followers, among whom the Premier of New Zealand is included, are in doubt whether the sad condition of Ireland is owing to the operation of Divine Providence, or the sloth of the Irish peasant. It is a fear that a similar condition of landed tenure and landless misery may hereafter arise in New Zealand that has made Sir Geo. Grey so earnest and persistent in denouncing the unwisdom of alienating large portions of the public estate to speculators and capitalists, and made so many of " the common people believe in him."