The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1907. IRELAND,—A NATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3742, 15 January 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1907. IRELAND,—A NATION.

Englishmen the world over have fought for the freedom of everyone who desired it, with the exception of the Irish who desire it as much as anybody. The Irish envoys in this country, one of whom is the distinguished Irish Nationalist Mr Devlin, have so strenuously advocated Home Rule for Ireland that the mere writer has little enough material left. Mr Devlin has pointed out everywhere he has been the distressful state of the Green Isle, and allowing a little for the Celtic imagination, the reader of history, and the man who has been permitted to know the real state of the Irish people on Irish soil has to concede that the history of Ireland is the history of a brave, brilliant and determined people who have fought under tremendous disadvantages for a position 'conceded to most English speaking people. Irish disabilities have been not altogether an unmixed evil. The condition of the Irish has forced Irish men and women abroad in greater per head of population than any other people. It is a remarkable thing that the people who have been considered by those who have the governance of them as unfit to control their own destinies, have in a very large measure been gladly availed of to govern other lands. The emigration of Irishmen have in innumerable instances been the turning-point in the lives of those men. T%e Celt whenever he may have g«ne has retained the characteristics, many of well

loved, indespensibie, and an honour to the country he inhabits. He holds many of the highest positions in this country very often because of his native talent, his bonhomie and inborn brilliance. He differs from the Saxon in that he is less “solid.” He jumps to a conclusion that the Saxon oftentimes takes a long time to arrive at. It is a trait that the English who govern Ireland do not condone, not understanding. It is better to be plodding than brilliant. The dull person feels the least and makes the most money. The Irish are emotional and they feel keenly enough to weep at a slight and wipe it out with a blackthorn. It is the quality we expect of the Irish when they are fighting the battle or the Empire. It is a quality the rulers of Ireland condemn when the Irish are using it for the freedom of Ireland. ‘‘ The Irish are emotional and irresponsible. ” So said an unemotional English statesman. The irresponsible Irishman migrating to a laud of freedom where he may and does take his share of the government of his adopted country, becomes responsible because he is given no worse a name than the Scot or the Englishman. Ireland has been denied nationhood so that Irishmen may plant nationhood in other contries than Ireland. Ireland has become a by-word and a reproach because Irishmen have been needed to help in making the names of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America, great. But wherever the Irishman may be, be he navvy, policeman, publican or statesman, and however he may . throw hfs energies into the building of a new nation, be is an Irish Nationalist still. He has an abiding love oi the Quid Sod, that is undivided, indissoluble, everlasting. He loves freedom the more because he has it himself in a new land and because his kin in Ireland have it not and are striving ibr it. He knows that the Irish in Ireland are too broken and too impotent to bring the country out of the mire and set it among the sisterhood of nations. He knows that he, being still part of the Hibernian race is stronger than the Home, —born to effect the purpose that weakened so deplorably with the death of that great Nationalist William Ewart Gladstone, himself no Irishman, but who recognised the eternal principle of justice for all men of whatever creed country or condition. It is to the Irishmen, then, of the colonies, to the Irishmen of the earth who are scattered among the nations that a nation must be bprn again. We, in New Zealand being tree appreciate the value of freedom to others. We are not to be accused of anarchy, because we, as a freedom-loving people say that others should enjoy what we demand as our inalienable right. We have always possessed freedom and nearly always self-government and there has never yet been suggestion that we, not knowing what is best for ourselves, should be governed from Downing-street by men who do not know what is best for Ireland, because tor the most part they know nothiug about Ireland. The Irish in their struggle for self-government have failed many times because they resorted to physical means, a very excellent means when it is used for the destruction of the Empire’s enemies but a great crime if used for the restoration of their own ancient glories. To those who know nothing of Ireland, it comes as a surprise to know that it has the oldest educational system in the world, that at periods when it had self - government, it showed signal ability not only to govern itself, but was a pattern to other countries. Constant uutirable work by Irish patriots has resulted in many reforms in the Irish land laws which however must still be administered by men who frequently know nothing and care less for the people the laws affect. Things in Ireland at the moment look a good deal more hopeful than they have done since the death of Gladstone, unquestionably because of the advance of Education in England and a more adequate understanding of the position of affairs in the Emerald Isle. Ireland’s curse has been, not the animosity of Englishmen, but the Ignorance of Englishmen. .Englishmen as a general thing Know as much about Ireland as a Red Indian knows about Mars. This has been always the fault of the ruling classes who Jmve seen that to keep a people subject they must be kept ignorant. The “ lower class” Irishman has been treated as a criminal because also he is ignorant, and to the ignorant man physical retaliation is the only means available to get even with an enemy. Ireland is going to have Home Rule because public sentiment has been gradually and powerfully awakened by a preaching Jof the gospel of opportunity for Irish peasant and British poor. Ireland will obtain Home Rule because constant dropping wears away stone, and the constant dropping of the water of reason on the flinty material at Westminster will effect by pacific measures what physical means —at least the physical means available—can never hope to do. It is absurd to say that Dutchmen in Africa with the help of Britishers on the spot can rule Africa and that Irishmen in Ireland cannot rule their own country. It is ridiculous to assert that New Zealand has been able to make a success of self-government and that it is impossible for Irishmen to do the same thing in Ireland, The sneer that Irishmen have been improvident is deserved only because Irishmen at Home have been allowed nothing toj be provident on. They are more quarrelsome than English or

.Scotch because at Home the majority of English and Scotch get the ha-pence while the Irishman gets the kicks. The Irishman manages to annex the ha-pence when he gets abroad and emphasises his claim to become part of a nation by nation-building for other people. To talk about Home Rule for Ireland a few years ago was in some mysterious way credited with being a crime. Even to-day an Irish Nationalist is looked upon in the British Parliament as being something of a wild animal, but during the existence of the party not a single member has accepted emolument or place, which is the best evidence that the Irish Nationalists ate single-souled patriots imbued with the idea that their life-work is to be given up without fee or reward to the realisation of their wish to make Ireland the home of the Irish nation selfgoverned, self-respecting and respected by the sister nations, who should with one voice support Home Rule for Ireland.