ME. PARNELL'S PROPOSED LAND SYSTEM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 6, 7 January 1881, Page 4

ME. PARNELL'S PROPOSED LAND SYSTEM.

At a l&le demonstration, Mr. Par Doll saiu • — " It is our part to teach the people of Ireland what their national rights • are in respect to the land of Ireland* (Cheers.) We will not parley with landlordism* Thai institution, created for the purpose of maintaining English rule in Ireland, and for the interests of the few against the many, will have to fall. (Cheers, and ft voice — ' Lord Mountmorres fell.') How did it fall in Pr ussiu P The tenants enjoyed what is called fixity of tenure at valued rente, but the system of fixity of tenure at valued rents was found so intolerable to the Pruß6ian tenants that the State tvaß compelled to come in and put an end to the rights of the landlords over the land. (Cheers ) With a system of land fcetrar§ far more just to the tenant than that which we poase&B, a system which, under the nauie of fixity of tenure at valued rents, is advocated to-day for Ireland by many able, earnest, devoted, and talented men, it was found necesssary in Prussia to go still further, and to do that for Prussia which wo ask may be done for Ireland to-day. (Cheers.) The King of Prussia iasced an edict giving tbe landlords two years in which to transfer the land to their tenants, and he told them in the same edict that it they did not agree with their tenants as to the terms of the transfer within two years, he, the King, would step in and transfer it himself. (Cheers, and a Voice — ' You may be King of Ireland yet.' Another Voice— 'We will make him "President.' Cheers.) The landlords were unable to make terms with their tenants, and the King of Prussia, at the expiration of the two years, fulfilled his promise, and he gave the land to the tenants as their owo. ((-beers.) He compensated the Prussian nobles by giving them paper bearing 4< per cent interest, and ho decreed that the tenants Bhould pay interest on this debt for a certain number of years 40 years, I think it was — and that at the end of that time there should be nothing further to pay. (Cheers.) Now, we ask to-day for settlement on a somewhat similar basis, and we say that what Prussia was able to do at the commencement of the century England ought to be able to do tomorrow or in a short while. (Cheers.) I believe, and I should be very sorry to mislead anybody — I should be very sorry to raise the hopes of the tenants of'this country — but I am perfectly confident that if they will follow our advice, within a very brief period we shall have transferred two-thirds of the land of Ireland frdto the Irish landlords to the tenants (cheers), and the annual payments to, be made by the tenants for a per od of, cay, 35 yearß, will be very much less than the present rackrents that they are obliged to pay. (Cheers, and a voice — * We will give them what Lord Mountmorres got,') Perhaps, during the next Session of Parliament the Gladstone Ministry will find itself unable to settle this land question. I think it] is exceedingly likely. (Hear, hear; and a voice— 4 We will have a Parliament in Collegegreen yet.') I think that it is very probable that the present Ministry will ofTer us some worthless concessions not worth our acceptance. (Cheers, and a voice — ' Obstruction ; obstruction, then.'") But I feel sure that in that case the longer a settlement of the question is delayed the worse terms the landlords will get. (Loud cheers.) It would be better for them to come forward now and to offer fair terms to the Irish tenants, for I tell them that if they do not we shall soon be in the position of victors and shall be able to dictate our own terms. (Loud cheers.) While, then, some of the old habit of subservience and slavish obedience still remains among the Irish tenantry, that is the time for the landlords to come forward and to make their proposition. We have made ours, and we say that interested as we are in tbe welfare of the shopkeepers of Ireland, the trading community of Ireland, the merchants, the labourers (cheers), every class that earns the right to live in this country by hard work, either physical or mental, we cay that interested as we are in the welfare of those classes, determined as we are to do our very utmost to make Ireland great, glorious, prosperous, and free (loud cheers), to take the power of governing Ireland out of the hands of our own people (loud cheers), determined as we are to achieve those ends, we believe that we can only achieve them by making the land as free as it was when the waters of the Flood left it. (Loud and prolonged cheering.)