The Evictions. PAINFUL SCENES. Families Turned Out on the Bleak Hill Side.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Evictions. PAINFUL SCENES. Families Turned Out on the Bleak Hill Side.

The campaign of eviction goea on meanwhile merrily in Ireland. The evictienson. Lord Olanricarde'e estates in Gal way, whioh contiecated in tenants' improvement* many times the amount of rent due, resulted, as I mentioned in a former letter, a in serious riot, which ended in some thirty r©3pectablo Irish fannors being committed to gaol,, and sentenced eventually to terms of mv prii-oament varying from one to two years. Thia week are proceed iog the Glenboigh evictions, which oiupfc cauee a thrill of unspeakablo horror in any civil-i-cd country where the story is heard. Glenbeigh is an estate of 10,003 acrea iv tho wildest and poorest part of Ketry. Io is in fact mero bog and rook, from which a thousand acres have been reclaimed by some 200 to 300 poor cottiers. On thoeo they had erected Hf-tle hutp, and their only subsistence was a little patch, on which they grew a few watery potatoes. Their parish prieat some years ago went through Ireland on a begging expedition for hisstarving parishioners. "I honestly think," he eaid lately at a meeting to> potest against the evictions, " that thesau does not shine upon a more wretched corner ot God's earth." In vain one agent after another aeeured the landlord that with the succession of bad harvests it was impossible for the wretched tenantry to pay any rent at all. They were, in fact, on the verge of chronic starvation. But the Hon. Rowland Winn— a notable Orangeman, by the way— insisted, like Shylock, on hia pound of flesh Writs were issued. The "Crowbar Brigade" and hundreds of constabulary were sent ta the lonely spot to exterminate the wretched families. They were turned out; with their few sticks of furniture on to the bleak mountain side in the bitterest of winter weather. The walls were then, levelled, and tho thatch tired amid the sorrowful wail of the now homeless w retchee. The very policemen, who stood with fixed bayonet 3 to protect the executors of this law of vengeance, shed teais and actually opened a subscription among themselves for the poor tenantß on the spot. This is the landlord's ''plan of campaign" in Ireland. It is etrictly legal no dcubfc, but the law Bays the tenants' "plan of campaign is not." But the Salisbury Government's motto for Ireland, is *• Fiat justitia mat cceliun." Such scenes as the Glonbeigh evictions are the carrying of fire and sword and the incendiary torch into Ireland, as much aa were the atrocities of Russia in conquered Poland. Indeed, nothing recorded in the history of cruelties inflicted by conqueror on conquered exceeds tbe ghastly scenes at the Glenbeigh evictions, en aged men and helpless children were carried out by the police swooning and crying lest they should perish in the flames kindled by the agent and hia myrmidons. It is exactly as though the unfortunate peasants were so much vermin, to be exterminated by tho owner from the soil at his will. They must fall upon the rates, of course, and the rate 3 will become such a burden that without some change for the better in the tenants' miserable lots, the whole country will rise and sweep the landlords into the sea, Tbia is the moment deemed auspicious by Lord Salisbury for demanding from the Legislature measures of coercion powerful enough, to dragoon the whole country into mute and uncomplaining submission.