THE O'CONNELL CENTENARY.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1708, 9 August 1875, Page 3

THE O'CONNELL CENTENARY.

(To the Editor of the Star,

Sir,—On last Thursday patriotic and liberty loving Irishmen in every land commemorated fittingly the centenary of the illustrious Liberator, and in various ways manifested their admiration of the persistency and devotedness with which he advocated the cause of the enslaved Irish, and finally obtained for them political freedom. Here, too, in this remote land, away from the scenes and battle grounds of the struggles of O'Connell, his countrymen met together and honored his glorious memory. In Dunedin, Wellington, and the Southern towns the centenary was suitably celebrated; but in Auckland the day was allowed to pass in silence. It is to say, the least derogatory to the patriotism and national point of the Irishmen of Auckland that they should have allowed the day to pass without commending it in some way or other. Shall their countrymen in the South point to them as being unworthy inheritors of the freedom which O'Connell so dearly won? Shall their silence be construed as evidence that they ungratefully forget his struggles and his sufferings for the Irish cause ? Shall it be said that their patriotism has died out, that their national characteristics are forgotten, that their love for the old land and its illustrious dead has grown cold ? lam sure that there are hundreds of men in this city who have yet a spark of Irish enthusiasm in their breasts, and who gratefully recollect the labours of the great Tribune ; but for want of leaders no movement has been made to celebrate the centenary. It is the fault of the great body of the Irish in this province themselves that they have not men of proper intelligence and sufficient love for their country as leaders to initiate such celebrations. They allow a number of purse-proud would-be' aristocratic numskulls to be looked upon as their recognised leaders, and- unless these take the initiative in any movement it is never carried out. These persons would endeavour to throw cold water on all such celebrations as the O'Connell Centenary; they are almost ashamed to avow their nationality, and they thus disgrace and cast obloquy upon the noble race to which they unworthily belong. It was with pleasure and pride I read in your paper the testimony of such a conscientious man as Sir George Grey to the merits of O'Connell. For these words, lam sure Sir George will receive the thanks of the Irish in these seas. O'Connell struggled perpetually to resist the domination of ungodly wealth over the honest toilers of his land. He wished to raise his countrymen by the magic powers of moral force from the darkness of political degradation to the light of political freedom, and he lived to see the way paved for the complete accomplishment of his wish. Thomas Francis Meagher avowed that the.ardent hope of his life was to raise his country up, and to see her take a proud position among the nations of the earth, from being the meanest beggar in the world: this, too, was the one end for which the Liberator struggled, but the means he took to accomplish it were singularly different and more likely to be successful than those of Meagher. Sir George Grey has in New Zealand almost a similar mission to what O'Connell had in Ireland. Here, too, although our colony has scarce emerged from the dawn of political existence, there is fast growing a despotic class. There are many men with enormous power in the high places of the colony who would wish to obtain a complete hold of the governing power to the detriment of the governed. Advantage is taken of the apathy with which the generality of people regard politics; that is one of the misfortunes of the country, for once a people becomes apathetic they are politically dead, and may be made to feel the pressure of tyrranous laws, in the making of which they have but nominally a voice. Sir George Grey wishes not that such a curse should ever befall this young country ; he despises the formation of " classes," and without going to the extreme of "mob rule" will demand for an intelligent .people a proper voice in the making of laws by which they are to be governed. Ifc is the duty, therefore, of the people to give an unanimous and enthusiastic support' to Sir George, so that he may be successful in purging the country of the seeds of class distinctions and political corruption.—l am, &c, An IRISHMAN.

rrn Queensland a proposal to celebrate the O'Connell Centenary was abandoned because it was deemed unwise to perpetuate class celebrations which flave been so fraught with evil in the mother country. We incline to think that the Irishmen of this city, who are very far from being unpatriotic, have set their fellow-countrymen in the South an example of wisdom in their action with relation to the O'Connell centenary. It would be well if we could lay aside the consciousness of being English, Irish, or Scotch, and strive to the attainment of a new nationality, in which all races are blended as colonists, possessing equal civil and religious rights and like sympathies This can only be done by committing to oblivion everything calculated to perpetuate the grievances and sources of bitterness existing in the old country, and for these reasons all political class celebrations are inadvisable. We have no doubt that this feeliDg is participated in by the majority of the Irishmen in Auckland. It may well be a matter of pride and congratulation to the citizens of Auckland that in no mixed community under the sun does there exist a more cordial and harmonious feeling than is found here between all the races that acknowledge Victoria m their sovereign.—E». E.B.]