CURRENT TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3646, 6 December 1920, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

V— —* * (By Argus.) The candiates fox the Kalgoorlio bye-election are Messrs George Foley and the expelled member of the Federal House ot Representatives, iPr ■Hugh Mahon. The former was ai one time a vigorous Labourite, and was; member for Loonara in the Westralian ■Assembly from 1911 until the present time. He contested the scat as a supporter of the Scaddon Labour G.>vernoont, and hold it as a Na.io-al Labour man since the solit in Mm We.sir alia u Labour Party. He ;•’■■■ > a member of the Perth City Council, and is also an honorary complain; s officer in the Defence Department of West Australia. Hugh Mahon, the expedled member, is a journalist, and is re-contesting the seat. The elctors of Australian electorates usually reelect the expelled members. In 1869 C. E. Jones was expelled from the Victorian Legislative Assembly, but was hack in the House within thirty-four days after his expulsion, as the representative of Ballarat. The other expulsion was that of Edward Findley, publisher at the time-of the Labour journal, The Tocsin, at Melbourne. His expulsion was caused by the publication of an article (for which he was not responsible) condemning Cardinal Vaughan for kneeling to present an address to King Edward. Findley was subsequently elected to the Federal Senate, of which he was a member for nine years, and held office for a period as an assistant. Minister.

It does not s -cm likely that the Irish question will be permanently settled for some time to come, and it is extremely regrettable that what is. undoubtedly one of the most productive and prosperous countries in the British Empire should be beset by apparently endless turmoil. The proposal to establish two Parliaments in Ireland will never be satisfactory if given effect to, for the reason that one Parliament would always be

clashing with the other. To get down to the real basis of the Irish trouble, a majority of the people want Home Rule and cannot get it, and as a com-

promise it has now been suggested that the majority should have their own Parliament and that the minority should also be granted self-govern-ment. Ulster Ims. been - the stumbling block in all the old and new negotiations for Homo Rule, and the pity is that the difference has always been made religious rather than political. If religious differences are to be considered in connection with the granting of Home Rule, there will always bo a dissatisfied element even in Ulster. In Leinster, the population is Only 15 per cent. non-Catholic, whilst the most Protestant county is Armagh, with 201 per cent, of Catholics. The Ulster minority claims that alb the wealth is in Ulster and that the nest of Ireland is unproductive in comparison; but the contention does not bear investigation. Ireland is not a manufacturing country, except for Ulster, the remainder being nearly all agricultural, and it is from agricultural Ireland that the wealth comes.

The area of the whole country is 32,586 square miles, aad the population is about .127 to the square mile, as compared with the English average of 650. Ireland contains 572,574 individual holdings of land, and pro-

: duces five times as much hay, four j times the tonnage of potatoes, and a ! great deal more wheat, oats, and ! barley than Scotland. There are 1,600,000 more cattle in Iceland than in New South Wales, more pigs than in all Australia, and twice as many sheep as in Tasmania. About 370,000 of the farmers own the land they till, anad the banks in Ireland hold nearly as much gold and silver as the banks of the Australian Commonwealth. The exports of produce peis head of population in 3916 totalled £2s 10/, as against Australia’s total of £l9 10/ per head. The British Government raised about £106,000,000 to buy out the big landlords, hnd this money has all been sunk in the land. By comparison, Ulster is not the wealthy part of Iceland, in spite of the fact that it leads the way in Manufactures. With internal and permanent peace, Ireland would develop wonderfully, and if the sectar- - ian bigotry could be wiped out, it would be found that all sections of the Irish people ’ would work in harmony on account of the social and political aims of the- North and South being identical. The , danger of maintaining an opposition for years to the ■ wishes of the majority is that the section which would have cheerfully accepted a small measure of Homo Buie some years ago, has become re- 5 volutionary. with the result that Ireland is torn bv three separate factions at nresent. If Homo Buie is not - evented in an acceptable form, the revolutionary factions are certain to b,e • o.nvn and if, is quite possible that. England cniild a mange matters now more easily than in a. few veers time.