“CHINESE” GORDON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2477, 26 February 1881, Page 4

“CHINESE” GORDON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

The following letters hare appeared in the “ Times :

Sir,—The Irish question deeply interests all classes of people at the present moment. Among others Colonel Gordon has been lately investigating it on the spot. He has written me the following brief remarks, and as may be imagined from his previous career, he goes to the I’oot of the matter. The vast interest of the subject may be my excuse for sending this private letter for’publication, which I do on my responsibility. Whether the public will agree in his conclusions or not, at least they offer a new departure for consideration, and they are those of a man who has wielded autocratic power over millions of human beings, and who knows the responsibilities of Government. —I am, Sir, your obedient servant, December 1. J-

My Dear J. —You are aware how interested I am in the welfare of the country, and having known you for 26 years I am sure I may say the same of 3 7 0 u. I have lately been over to the SouthWest of Ireland, in the hope of discovering how some settlement could be made of the Irish question, which, like a fretting cancer, eats away our vitals as a nation.

I have come to the conclusion that—

1. A gulf of antipath}’; exists between the landlords and tenants of the NorthWest and West and South-West of Ireland. It is a gulf which is not caused alone by the question of rent; there is a complete lack of sympathy between the two classes. It is useless to enquire how such a state of things has come to pass. I call your attention to the pamphlets, letters, and speeches of the landlord class as a proof of how little sympathy or kindness there exists among them for the tenantry, and I am sure that the tenantry feel in the same way towards the landlords.

2. No half.measure Acts which left the landlords with any thing to say to the tenantry of these portions of Ireland will be of any use. They would be rendered, as past land acts in Ireland have been, quite abortive ; for the landlords will insert clauses to do away with their force. Anj r half measures will only place the Government face to face with the people of Ireland as the champions of the landlord interest. The Government would be boumd to enforce their decision, and with a result which none can forsee, but which certainly would be disastrous to the common weal.

3. My idea is that, seeing—through this cause or that it is immaterial to examine a deadlock has occurred between the present landlords and tenants, the Government should purchase up the rights of the landlords over the whole or greater part of Longford, Westmeath, Clare, Cork,Kerry, Limerick, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Cavan, and Donegal. The yearly rental of these districts is some four millions, if the Government gives the landlords 20 years’ purchase, it would cost 80,000,000 which at 34 per cent would give a yearly interest of £2,800,000, of which £2,500,000 could be recovered ; the lands would be Crown lands; they would be administred by a land commission which might for a short time need £IOO,OOO. This would not injure the landlords, and so far as it is an interference with proprietary rights, it'is as just as is the law which forces Lord A to allow a railway to run through his park for the public benefit. I would restrain the landlords from any power or control in these Grown land districts. Poor-law, roads, schools, &c., should be under the Land Commission. 4. For the rest of Ireland I would pass an Act allowing free sale of leases, fair rents, and a Government valuation. In conclusion, I must say, from all accounts and my own observation, that the state of our fellow-countrymen in the parts I have named is worse tlian of any people in the world, let alone Europe. I believe that these people are made as we are, that they are patient beyond belief, loyal, but, at the same time, broken-spirited and desperate, living on the verge of starvation in places in which we would not keep our cattle. The Bulgarians, Anatolians, Chinese, and Indians,, are better off than many of them are. The priests alone have any sympathy with their sufferings, and naturally alone have a hold over them. In these days, in common justice, if we endow a Protestant university, why should we not endow a Catholic university in a Catholic country ? Is it not as difficult to get a £5 note from a Protestant as from a Catholic or a Jew ? Read the letters of—and of—and tell me if you see in them any particle of kind feeling towards the tenantry ; and if you have any doubts about this, investigate the manner in which the relief fund was administered, and in which the sums of money for improvements of estates by landlords were expended. In 1833 England gave freedom to the West Indian slaves at a cost of 20 millions—worth now 30 millions. This money left the country. England got nothing for it. By an expenditure of 80 millions she may free her own people. She would have the hold over the land, and she would cure a cancer. I am not well off, but I would offer or his agent £IOOO if either of them would live one week in one of these poor devils’ places, and feed as these people do, Our comic prints do an infinity of harm by their caricatures —firstly, the caricatures are not true, for the crime in Ireland is not greater than that in England ; and, secondly, they exasperate the people on both sides of the Channel, and they do no good. It is ill to laugh and scoff at a question which affects our existence.— Yours sincerely, C. G. Gordok.