WAYS AND WAYS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1096, 7 April 1911, Page 4

WAYS AND WAYS

"Tin; ways of Ireland arc not. ours," says the Westminster Gazette, commenting on the decision of the Judges in the North Louth election petition. The result of this interesting case, as already reported, was to unseat Mr. Hazleton, who had defeated Mr. T. M. Healy, K.C., at the general election. A glance at the facts will show that New Zealanders might echo the remark we have quoted above. The Westminster Gazette continues: It. was clear from the evidence that the electors had a riotous time, that priests and others were insulted, that the police were atoned and Mr. Hcnly besiegpd in n pclioolhoitFe for two hours Yet the petitioners were not able to produce the voter who was kept from the polling-booth by fear of these thine;. To Irish eyes it no doubt appears ridiculous that a fuss should bo made about a little gonial excitement. The election is declared void, but on such comparatively mild matters as treating and bribery. We must find the whole explanation in Mr. Justice Gibson's statement that ho "knows something of the habits and dipposition of his countrymen." What on this side of the Ifish Channel would appear as a serious riot is there but the wish to make a good time: of an accidental holiday. Certainly, an Irish election must be } very different from the quiet polling day that we are accustomed to in this country. But there are other contrasts, perhaps less flattering to ourselves, between the political life of Ireland and of New Zealand. In the course of his judgment in the North Louth case, Mr. Justice Gibson said that Mr. Hazleton, as a member of the Irish party, was bound by the self-denying ordinance against using influence to obtain appointments for anyone—appointments from the- British Government. Mr. Hoaly who for nearly thirty years was a member of the party, to which he still claimed to belong, was bound by the same obligation, "for the Irish party," nrnt on his Lordship, "hnd a record of stainless purity in their loyal adherence to this noble ssli-abncgalion." Most of our New Zealand politicians might say but too truly, "The ways of Ireland are not our ways."