Ireland.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 170, 18 September 1886, Page 3

Ireland.

BY REV. JOHN HA1.L..8.D.. L L.D.

TaßatVentioli now v to Irelabd riiay 111 1 aoMe^in^ omaation Regarding the land > »n.d i <, the -people. *• Tlie 5 " writer would" 'not • willingly, colour^ o/^isplace t)ie ( f acs's7 t »or. "write- in the spirit: of a- partisan;.^ and /anything that' legislation can do '" for his native, land— dear to him, -trad, , cherished* as she is-^-he would most heartily -i welcome. ' On the merits' of the controversies now pending he does not en tar. Only thefe j general statements may be made : England i has undoubtedly made mistakes in her man- j agomdntof the nation, and she is now— >ac- ; eordlbg to the law of retribution all the' i world' over — paying the penalty. These' ■ mistakes were largely those of the time, j There are doctrines of regulated liberty '. which no nation carried out- to the extent now recognised as right, a century age. And finally.' there' are ills in many communities , which no amount of law-making .by itself, can cure. Other agencies must co-operate \ with the legislatures to secure health and peace, in the.Emerald 151e. . , „ i Ireland lies within 60 miles of England, has our ocean On the. other three sides, an'd iifte a surface of about twenty millions, of acres, a fair proportion^ of mountains, none above three thousand five hundred f ee^ high, and of «« bog "mostly relaimable in time, is offset by fine harbours, very g.ood rivers, and a fair amount of land not subject to drought ; and, with reasonable care good for crops and grazing. The population has been as high' a$ '8,175,124 in 1841.' From 1845 onward, owing to potato disease and consequent bad times, emigration went on till 1881, when the census Showed a reduction of, as nearly as possible, three millions, or 37£ per cent. This emigration continues, with fluctuating Tates, mainly to the United States. There are emigrants also to Canada and to Australia. The facilities for obtaining high education are considerable ; and many of I eland's young men go to the army, the navy -and the civil service in India, in which they are doing well. . We commonly road of " Great Britain and , Ireland," a phrase resting probably on the existence since the beginning of the century of the united "Imperial Parliament." To that body Ireland has sent 105 as against 60 from Scotland, and from England 463. If we made population the standard, the change would not be as large as twenty, in either oase. If revenues be the test Ireland would loee nearly fotty. Irish peers can be elected tothe Commons; EnglishandScotch cannot. The clergy of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, all government con-, tractors, an.£ sheriffs and returning officers are shut out from Parliament. Every other man over twenty one may go in if he can only get the, votes. Glancing at the "revenues from local taxation of the " three kingdoms ' as men still say in some quarters, the proportions of England, Scotland, and Wales were in 1381 respectively (in round numbers) 53, 6, and 4 million sterling. It is just possible that this element will be of consequence in any future changes in Irish administration. For in 1881 the outlay was for England 53, for Scotland 6, and for Ireland 3 million. The executive government of Ireland is, in part, in the hands of a Lord-Lieutenant, appointed by the ministry in power, and liAve A salary £20,000 a year, the whole of It, and often a great deal more, it is said, laid out in Ireland. Minor appointments, mostly held by Irishmen, cost about £10,000 a year. All the judges, with salaries from £8,000 a year downward, are Irishmen. So are the lieutenants of the countries, by whom grand jurors and high sheriffs — who all do duty for the " honour and glory " of the thing— are named. Local taxation for the poor and the roads is io the hands of these gentlemen, but the "guardian" are chosen by the people. Ireland had, in 1881, only three cities ■with over '50,000 of a population — Dublin, Uelfast and Cork. It has leas than one-half thfi people to the square mile than England lias It has good fisheries, of which the roost is not made, and it has, it is believed, Iron and coal mines, and much productive land, out of which more might be gained than is realised at present Until comparatively lately, educational facilities did not exist through government care. The same was true of England, the .Established Church having education in a good degree, in her hands. Now there is a good syetem of elementary education -uanaged under a body of Coamrispionerp, one half Protestant, and one half Roman Catholic. No neighborhood need be without a school, and any child can get education withont his religion being interfered with. It is mixed secular, and separate religious, instruction. In 1882, seven thousand seven hundred and five schools were in operation, with an attendance of nearly half a million. They would have accommodated two hundred thousand more. The parliamentary grant from this system in 1 883 waa £760.000 while Scotland had only £483,000 This outlay does not include the Queen's College?, combined in a university, and open to all, nor two other universities resting on local foundations One result ia that the percentage of^ the illiterates between fifteen and twenty years of age fell from 27 3in 1861 to 12-4 in 3881. A result of this progress in education is the higher place than in former years that emigrants can now take in the United States*. Of the 105,743 who quitted Ireland in 1883 the great majority could read and write. The people of Ireland, it is well known, are not one in religion. This is due, histori- , cally, to the colonising from England and Scotland, the latter having cent many people to Ulster. The Koman Catholics included 78 per cent of the people, the remainder being nearly equally divided between Episcopalians and Presbyterians. All are now, since 1871. without endowtnents from the State, although Protestants retain pome solid advantages from the establishment. One of the great causes of trouble in Ireland has been the tenure of land. All ccc c it was in the hands of landlord?, the majority by early grants from the Crown, the rest by purchase in later times. To theefe tenants paid a rent in this generation xunniner from three to five dollars an acre, except in rich grazing dietricts or the neighbourhood of towns, where it waa often, higher. In Ulster, and all over the country, the tenants paid small rents at the beginning, but on the expiration of their thirty one-year leaees, when the landlord proposed to raise their rents, they said, yith Scottish pluck : J' Why, it is our toil that ha* made them more valuable, and you propope to make us pay for that !" When the landlords held out, the farmers joined together, sent their reprenentatives to the porte, chartered ships— not quite equal to present ocean steamers — and made their way to the James River and other Ameri. 4»n ports, and from 1720 onward (the leased beginning after 1688) brought a certain proportion of mental muscle to Pennsylvania and neighbouring regions. In some degree owing, to this etand, there grew up a tacir.ly allowed «• tenant right " in IJfcrer, so ihtkl a farmer emigrating or going to a town could sell his land, subject to, *»y, five dollars an acre of annual rent to the landlord, for 76 to lOO,doll4rfl »n«bre to another ttnant. By persistent effort the

Ulster people at length secured 'a Farliao^her pr^/iMea improyemenii wfflpa n^)t in more dependent -xjawt^e-landlorde, who often divided up farra§ £niP n g the eons "af tenants to incrVfaSe' th 6 number of Vbtes they could control: " *I It fait. to add' that .after the bud times <— b^giumpk X IS^^mo, tracts .of |;^n, "cumbored land 1 were aold in spaau quantities under a 'parliamehtafy cottimisfibh^ mauy.pf tbesesAvere bought, by, aucceaje-i ful l)U!«ine88 and, professional men, who in fairness ought: not' to be" regarded in the ■same light with the^de'aoerfdaiits ' of those who obtained^ for, more ©r s lens, cause,, royal, grants in paat^gendvatious. We only add, in concluding this statement— which may give more definite ideas to 'stu^entB 1 of ,tbo passing {struggle— that^Hile paupers have increased in 1 ten yedrV from 79,050 to 115;684 in 1883, !< committals for trial have gone 1 down from 4,454 in' 1873 to 4,301 in 1883. * •."•••