The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. TUESDAY. JANUARY 5, 1897. A LESSON FROM IRELAND.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 157, 5 January 1897, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. TUESDAY. JANUARY 5, 1897. A LESSON FROM IRELAND.

o Although the remarkably good opinion Australian and New Zealand colonists possess of thems*ives and their capacity to manage their own affairs without dictation or help from tbe other side of the world may be justified by the results, yet we venture to think that Ireland has lately set them an example they could in some instances follow witfe advantage. We admit that the .eircum-! stances are different because in tjhe case of taxation the Australians and New Zeaianders put their own burdens on their own backs, while the people of Ireland have that duty done for them by the English Parliament. Reaent cablegrams have informed our readers £hat tbe people in Ireland bavn at l&afc .become alive to the position and with «> unanimity unparalleled in the history at A£«ifc country, have joined togetber to protect ggainst what is a manifest injustice. Wj.Sh the assistance of a Royal Cooi mission jt has been discovered that Ireland is iSKfid proportionately heavier than the iE€«*3;inder of the United King dom, aa«l m the pocket is the "one touch of *iß!<ttwi" that makes •• the whole world 'kin/ Itkfi " adhesion of cohesion" among .the .^^r/enfc races aoxi creeds oi fcha.t " most .^u^jited

country" is easily understood. Whatever may be the result in the direction of equalising taxation, there can be no doubt but that if the experiment of " pulling together" only partially succeeds, the people will receive a practical lesson which may be of « vast use to them on some future occasion when they have either real or < imaginary wrongs which require redress. The moral of the tale is that what is good for Ireland may also be good for the colonies. . Although the , I colonists cannot reduce taxation by 11 equalisation " yet it is hoped by the advocates of federation to do so by a combination of the Australian colonies and New Zealand. The opinion is already spreading rapidly that we are paying too much for the privilege of being governed and our finances managed, while the benefits and advantages are far from commensurate with tho cost.