"HOME RULE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81903, 15 December 1906, Page 2

"HOME RULE."

The New Plymouth Debating Society on Thursday night debated the question of solS'governinont for Irehind. The llev. father JlcJlanus opened in favour, and argued that granting Home liule to Ireland would lie in the. best interests of the Empire. His speech was a lucid and exhaustive review of the whole question from the lime of the I'nion, which, he said, had vanished Ireland's population, mined her industries, and was failure as it deserved to he, founded on an illegality. A progressive and prosperous country, by its union with England, was so hampered by that union that a retrograde movement set in which continued throughout the following decades. Xo wonder, he said, that loyal Irishmen had rebelled against the misrule of their country. .Mr George Grey traversed the arguments of the previous speaker, and raised some strong points against the granting of the measure. lie made reference to the regrettable absence of a reference library in Xew Hy'iiouth to bear out some of the statements he had made, but he looked forward to the time when it would be possible to refer to a library wljeh would have a line educn'.ional elt'eet. Jlr .1. .1. Sullivan, who followed, controverted some of the statements of the previous speaker, ind treated the question from a con stitutional standpoint, showing the union from that view was not regu"lar. Jn reply to Jlr Grey, he said that there was no connection between

the physical force party llm ' *-hc c ' u,1 ~ ititutional party in Ireland at a prior period to the Phoenix Park tragedy, and relied in support of this contention upon the findings of the Parnelt Commission and on the late Chief ■Justice of Kngland, Lord Kusseil of ivillowen. After replies had been made, a vote was taken, the meeting favouring Home Utile by 4S votes to 3.