THE REAL REMEDY FOR IRISH DISTRESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 986, 11 March 1881, Page 3

THE REAL REMEDY FOR IRISH DISTRESS.

In a speech recently delivered at Birmingham, Mr John Bright pn pounded a plan for the relief of that distress which lie looks upon as the cause of Irish crime. He has seen th t, although Ireland may not be, upon the whole, overpeopled, still that there are places, more especially in Connaught where there is an unhealthy congrestion of population ; that under no ciicnrastanccs could a rent be produced from the land in some localities 11,011 the Atlantic coast, where die barren soil and inclemei t climate are more fitted for seagulls that for men ; that, nevertheless a teeming population, dependent chiefly upon fish and kelp, has grown up. in d that even these sources of sn sistence have failed Not many years ago a similar state of things existed in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and the English public was accustomed to appeals for relief ns they now are (rom Ireland. A system of what wou’d now be termed in the latter country “ heartless eviction,” aided by emigration, lias destroyed the nests of pauperism in Scotland, and turned tlieao districts into productive sheepwalks. This experience, and indeed common set so. points out (hat a similar course is the only real remedy f.»r tho present wretchedness among tho liidi peasantry. Mr Blight prnpo ed the purdiasy of a miUiou ucaa of waste

land in Ireland, its improvement and drainage, and tho division of it amongst 40,000 families, on farms, of 25 acres a-piece—a work which ho said would bo cheap at L 10,000,000. We submit that much more good can bo effected by the expenditure of this large sum in promoting emigration in Canada,, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, where good land can be had on easy terms and at cheap rates, and where the cost of reclamation is much less than in the snipe preserves of Ireland, We shall be met with the hackneyed cry, that the hone and sinew of our land must not be sent away. Rut the removal of a starving “ mountainy man" from a barren crag of shaking bog to a ikh abundance involves no loss of itower. Such a man would thrive there, as so many thousands of his countrymen have done wheh removed from their evil advisers ; he would there be a producer of food for us as well ns for himself; and he would consume our manufactures with even more benefit to himself than to ns. We .are a so prepared to meet the opposition of the Roman Catholic priests who object to lose their flocks and with them their “duties." This opposition has not I een able to stem the tide of emigration, nor has it checked tho munificent remittances for promoting thato’ject. The affecdonate vetneinhrance which yearns for f.mily reunion is characteristic of, and is a redeeming foature in, the national char acter. The success of friends encourages hope, and in seasons of distress thousands are anxious to move— Stabant or,antes primi trans.ni'.tere cursum, Tendebantque maims rip® alterioris samore. Now, when we have such powerful factors—starvation at home, a' und--1 ance abroad, people ready to go, and new lands open to receive (hem—surely we ought to devise an efficient remedy without violating those <conomic laws which, face Mr Gladstone, will assert themselves even in Ireland. To cany a family from Gal wav to Manitoba and the Gre.it > orth-West costs at the outside LlO per head Mr Bright, by his mode of spending the 10 millions, proposes to provide for 200,000 iu comparative poverty. Our plan, therefore, provides for 10 times that number, and places r.h -m iu permanent prosperity. But so great a depletion of population is unnecessary, and a considerable residue of the money would therefore remain to le n d to the emigrant in cases where it might be found necessary. U must l e borne in mind that comparatively little good is effected in ■ Ireland by the immigration of one or of two members of a family; the grown-up son and daughter - the luead winners, the support of their aged parents—may benefit tlmmselv s, it is true, but as long as the roof remains, as long as the patch of land, or rock, or Log continues as a separate holding, so long the evil continues. To effect a pennantnt good, the family must be removed in a body. This doubtless cßises •* difficulty A man with a wife am! children does not readily find emp'oymeiit as a workman, and thcefore money may sometimes be i eqaired to place this family upon t eir own farm. It would be unreasonable and useless to ask any colony to pay for tin's class of immigrants,, init no valid reason cm be given fer refusing permission to their fellow-countrymen to land at their own or at their country’s cost. That an outcry would be raised by men who fear a reduction in their wages is to be expected ; that the pnjn lice entertained against the. Irish will he intensified by the horrors now chronicled daily in our newspapers is m re than pro •able; but, unless the experiment be overdone i i any one locality, we have little fear that the great material advantages will not overcame all opposition. To avoid any such unhealthy congestion in any place, the bulk of the emigration should be directed to Canada as being the m -st extensive tie'd bouth Africa ought to be only too glad lo augment her means of self defence ; the increase of her white population is essential to her as well as to Natal and the Transvaal ; but Canada, is, doubtless, (he best field it is the newest and the cheapest, the acquisition of the land there is particularly facile, and (here is room for millions on its fertile prairies. To promote this dispersion, in addition to the regular ships charted for the purpose, it might be well to send ships from Sligo, Galway, and the •Shannon, in which free and assisted passages might he given to all parts of the world. A very large number would prefer to go to their friends in the United istatea. Their passage would cost less than that of any other nhiss. and there would ho an end to all further expense and responsibility. We are quite aware aware that this very roughly-sketched plan would he liable to imposition ; that some persons able to pay for passage might avail themselves of Government aid ; but Jet ns not lose sight of (he double object in view—lst. To provide for a people now starving. 2nd. To enniile the residue of our countrymen to live in peace at home. As Mr Bright is willing (o expend 10 millions on on these objects we have put forward those views as bci .g more potent, f o cheaper, and more practical than his proposal to drain the Bog ef Alien.— Colonies and iminn