AN ENVOY FROM IRELAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 369, 14 June 1911, Page 5

AN ENVOY FROM IRELAND.

MR. HAZELTON, M.P., IN TE KUITI. WHAT IRELAND WANTS. The gathering last night in the Town Hall was one such as Te Kuiti rarely sees. It drew devoted Irishmen from many miles around, and they were amply repaid in the privilege they enjoyed of listening to such a cultured speaker as Mr Hazelton proved himself to be. His Worship the Mayor presided, and in introducing the speaker of the evening said it was quite a common experience for a Mayor to preside at a meeting with which he had no sympathy. He was glad to say, however, that he was in the fullest sympathy with the objects of that meeting. He recalled the time when Mr GladStone introduced his first Home Rule Bill. He had been a Home Ruler ever since. The sons of Ireland had proved themselves worthy citizens in this new land, and had the esteem of their fellows. He had great pleasure in introducing Mr Hazelton. Mr Richard Hazelton.M.P. for North Galway, then addressed the gatherng. His thanks were firstly due to the Mayor for his kindly, sympathetic, manly and courageous speech in favour of the cause he had come to support, and secondly to the audience for coming in such large numbers to hear what a representative of Ireland had to say. He was astonished at the extraordinary enthusiasm for the Home Rule cause. He had been in other parts of New Zaaland, in Canada, and in the United States, and everywhere found the same spirit of devotion to the Old Land and its cause as they had shown by coming Jong distances to attend the meeting and help the cause so near and 4 dear to their hearts. He had viited Vie. Waitomo Caves that day, and if he did see very bad roads indeed, he also saw the wonders of those splendid caves, and the journey was worth the trouble. With the exception of Poland, no other race had shown greater love for country, to stand by it and make it a free nation under eelf-governing conditions amongst the free nations of the world. He was proud to bo in a position to say that all was going well for Ireland, and the cause of national self-government was never in a better position than at the present time.and surely within the next three years their parliament in Ireland would be restored to them once more. Ireland had been a corpse on the dissecting table, but thanks to the support they had received in the life-time of the Home Rule movement, they had been able to bring it from darkness to light and make it absolutelv sure that the long differences of 700 years standing would be settled not merely to the satisfaction of Ireland, but of England, Scotland, Wales and the Empire at large, by a real union-a bond of sympathy a bond of friendship-a real union, not as in 1801 when Parliament was taken from them by force, as Gladstone B aid by one of the foulest and blackest transactions. Everywhere they found people helping, and Scotland and Wales were amongst the best and m oat loyal friends they had. Scotland was at that moment putting forward a claim for Home Rule, and the Insh men would help Scotland and Wales in | getting parliaments of their own un|der the great federation of the British Empire. Ireland had never submerged her nationality. She still had her language: her own ideals; her past historv and her national heroes and had not thrown over her principles or their example. She realised to-day that instead of cutting the painter and drifting away from the Bntjsh Empire, all the liberty she could wish for would be found under the Br,tish fla g Some of their critics said that Home Rulers were pretending, and meant separation from the Emp.r. Hw answer was that when the Irish people wanted separation fought ? or it and died on the field of battle or on the scaffold. The t.mes had changed, and freedom under the Br.tcould be attained Canada a it Australia had it. South Africa had it. Whathad made Canada and South Africa loyal and contented portions of the British Emp.re.' It was the grant of national Be f-govern_ Int. They would be well satisfy in Ireland with that to-morrow But they did not ask for all that the selfkerning dominions had. They > „ 0 t wish to put on a custom tar.il . ia,,rl Their relations against England. mei Jere rather that of one state to aiv other in Australia or Canada than that of New Zealand to the Empire a Home. They did not ask fort power to make peace or war. The: would still send a certain number o. re pre ß entatives to the Imperial Par iament in London. What the, d* W ant was the right to manage the. own internal affairs in the same wa; a 9 all other B elf-governing dominion did at the preaenttime. An anony mou, letter-writer had quoted a

alleged speech of a colleague in America stating that he was not associated with the Home Rulers and wanted separation. That colleague was one of the 86 Irish M.P's. and a member of the Nationalist party. If he had ever made such a speech he could not have remained a member of that party for twenty-four hours. The time had come when the wings of the House of Lords must be clipped, and when the democracy must triumph. The House of Lords was practically on its death-bed. The Parliament Bill provided that, after two years, if the House of Commons passed a motion and it was rejected by the House of Lords, it became law, and in two years from now, in spite of the Lords, the end of a long and weary struggle would be reached. People in the past were afraid Home Rule meant Rome Rule, but there was never a greater bogey than this. Protestant Ulster returned only a majority of one member against self-gov-ernment for Ireland, and in Belfast itself Mr J. Devlin had been returned by a majority of 500 votes —not by a majority of Catholics, but by a

majority of Protestants democratic votes, and when the speaker stood, he had on his platform the Grand Master of Orangemen himself. All leaders of Irish nationalism, with the exception of Daniel O'Connell and John Redmond had been Irish Protestants. So what had happened in Canada

would happen in Ireland under Home Rule. Home Rule was not an end in itself. It would leave them free to set their own house in order. They had gained much in the last 30 years. They had practically settled the land question. One third of the land ha d passed from the owners to those who tilled the soil. Over £100,000,000 of money had been advanced for land purchase, and before it was finally settled the sum would have reached £250,000,000—a1l to be repaid by the people buying farms, in 68 years. They had provided decent homes for the people in town and country. Up

:o recently their people had been disgracefully housed, but Irish members irought forward Bills giving advances )f money to provide cottages, and 250,000 people had been provided with sanitary slate-roofed dwellings at the ,vhat looked absurdly low rentals of me shilling a week. A National University had been provided, and local self-government was another great reform introduced about eight years igo. Their county, urban and rural jouncils were a magnificent testimony ;o the ability of the Irish people to •ontrol their own local affairs, be:ause, while Imperial taxation had ?one up £3,000,000 local taxation iad gone down, on the average, three pence in the £, while at the same time they had provided better roads and better hospitals and the poor were better cared for, because the administration was better. All these reforms were as nothing compared to national autonomy in Ireland. ' While all the rest of the Empire had increased in prosperity,wealth and population, Ireland alone had gone back. In 1848 they had close on nine million people living in Ireland. To-day they had les3 than four and a half millions. The government was in the hands of the permanent officials, and it was almost impossible for even a friendly Chief Secretary himself to do anything in Ireland, because the fault lay with the system and until that was changed things could not be different. Scotland had 963 Government officials, costing £311,000 a year. Ireland had 4539 officials, costing £1,412,000 a year. Ireland had one and a half million police, Scotland had less than half a million. Yet Ireland compared favourably with regard to crime, not only with England and Scotland, but with other parts. All through there was extravagance, and inefficiency, because the system was out of touch with the people, and was not controlled by them. They said: Give us the management of our own affairs, and we will change this. There were signs to-day of more contentment and prosperity in Ireland. Last year the population increased 1000 odd, which showed they had reached the turn of the tide. Discussing the question of what was done with the fund 9 they were raising Mr Hazelton said that the election and returning officers' expenses of the poorer members of the party were paid for, and this involved £25,000 in the last two elections. In the United Kingdom £400,000 to £500,000 a year had to be spent by party organisations to keep the register effective, and in addition propagandist work had to be carried on Such work had borne its fruit, and had shown the Empire there was nothing to fear in doinj justice to Ireland. The only thinj that blocked the arbitration treaty between England and the United Statei was the influence of twelve or four teen million decendants of Irishmer in the United States who had sai< that on the day Home Rule was grant ed to Ireland that treaty would h signed. All other portions of th< Empire joined in defending its glory

and Ireland would not be behind in supporting, helping and maintaining the Empire and grant what she seeks, and there would be no prouder gem in the Empire than Ireland will prove to be. They faced the future with every hope and knowledge, certain of victory within the next two years, and he thanked them for the part they had played in helping Ireland to carry on the struggle for national self-gov-ernment.

Mr A. Scholes said Ireland was asking for the conditions as New Zealand had, and he was quite sure that if anyone tried to take away our privileges it would mean a revolution. He moved the following resolution: — "That we, the residents of Te Kuiti and district, express our heartfelt thanks to the members of the Irish Party for the honour they have conferred upon us by sending us from amongst them a member of the English Parliament to lay before us the claims of the Irish nation, and to enlist our sympathy therewith and that after having listened to his address and having carefully weighed and considered the whole position we desire to express our confidence in the power of the Irish nation to control and direct their own local affairs, and to most cordially support the movment whereby they strive to attain the same rights, privileges and liberties which we the people of the Dominion of New Zealand have so long enjoyed, and which have in this country proved to be such a marked and commanding success, and extend to them our sympathy in this their long struggle and trust that the grant of self-government to the Irish nation will be attended with the same success and prosperity which has attended similar grants in every other part of the King's Dominions." Mr G. Elliott seconded the resolution, and hoped people would bury the religious aspect of the question. Mr J. Lundon supported the motion in a clever speech, saying he knew as a lawyer the uses of advertisement—and cheap advertisement, and as we in New Zealand said "New Zealand for the New Zealanders," so we ought to say "Ireland for the Irish."

The motion was carried by acclamation.

Mr Hazelton expressed his thanks for the sympathy and moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, stating that in every district they had visited the Mayor had presided. Mr Jennings, M.P., had sent a sympathetic telegram, regretting that an attack of influenza prevented him being present.

The Mayor expressed his thank s, and moved a hearty vote of thanks to Messrs Hetet and Pepene for the free use of the hall, and announced that the result of the canvass for subscriptions was that £6O had been collected and a few other amounts were still to come in. The resolution was heartily approved, and the gathering dispersed. During the collection, Mr Karl Atkinson sang "Off to Philadelphia," and in response to an enthusiastic encore "Because."