HOME RULE EXPLAINED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81915, 9 January 1907, Page 2

HOME RULE EXPLAINED

IRELAND'S FRUIT l-'OJI A PARLIAMENT. MR. DKVIJN, M.P., AT NIAV PIA.MOI "I.T!. AN KX'I'III.'SIASTIU MKI'.TIXf.'. Th.'i'c was a-i CTji" crowd at the "I'lioalro Koval on Tuesday night to hear one. <.f the must logical, forceful, yi't eloCjUOllt HIV I impassioned addIVsSCS fn-.il. New Plymouth has ever heard— Unit delivered by Mv .1. Devlin, .M.l'„ tlic envoy of tin' Irish National party, on ill., text, "Home Killi' for Ire and." His Worship I hi' Mayor presided, and tlii'iv wore also (in the platform Messrs iv .\I. Smith. .M.11.1i., W. T. Jennings, M.I 1.1!., Rev. Dean Mckenna. Kev Father .McManus, Rev. 11. Uradbury, flr MKVland, .Messrs ,1. 11. Parker, L. il. Monteath, ,!. .1. Sullivan, and ISucklcy. The speaker was introdueed liy Jlis Worship tiie .Mayor, who made sonic interesting remarks on the movement in favour of lre'iand's self government. It was fortunate for Ireland and lor the host interests of her people that with education hud come the policy of appealing to reason, making- this a constitutional movement, and avoid-, ing all those revolutionary agitations that for so many years had retarded the growth of the Home Rule sentiment. He had always been a Home Ruler, and he was proud of the ad- \ ante made towards the emancipation of Ireland and the granting ot freedom to manage her own affairs, lie referred to the. Irish land laws ro | cently passed to enable the Irish tenantry to obtain possession of the land I they cultivated. Home Ruic, he |,claimed, would soon bring Ireland ou 'i.o even terms with those countries which had obtained such a great lead from her commercially and industrial-

ill' Devlin, rose a.midst prolonged tpplausc, and alter extending liuariy thanks for tin l , warmth of his reception is tin: representative of Ireland in (ho cause of freedom and liberty, and as a member of the Irish Parliament.try party, thanked the people for giv.ng him tliis opportunity of explaining to them the true genesis of the Irish question as it presented itself to the people of the Empire to-day. The .\layor had referred to the conflicts of ihe past century, when the Irish in their outraged indignation had been compelled time after time to resort to violence as a means of protesting 'gainst the evil effects of the misruie of Ireland by England. -Now. however, the movement was a constitutional one, and the mural force behinil it entitled iiiiu to a fair hearing, not inji.v from his countrymen, but from .ill who enjoved the immeasurable privileges extended to New Zealamlers, yet, denied to another great constitu- | i.ional part of the Jlritish Empire. IreI land asked for what the colonies en|oyed—the government of the people, .iy the people, for the people, lie .•amc here to plead file cause of "Jreland for the .Irish,'' as dear to their .learts as "Xew Zealand ror the Xew /eahinders" was here. .Sir Henry .'anipbcll - llunnerniaii, in a recent -peech, had said that "ill dealing .vitli the Irish question, guod govern .Dent is no substitute for self government." That was a constitutional dictum and a democratic comuionpuce. ilinv irresistible then was the Irish ■laim that self-government should tie substituted for bad government, checking a fervid outburst, ,\lr Devlin said he did not seek to gain support uy the perfervid oratory of an indigent Irish patriot, or an appeal to tiie. passions and prejudices uf his t-llow-.'ountrymen, out rather by a co'.ii, caun, analytical and statistical exam ,nation of history and facts. Clouuasting the comlitions existing in Ireland a hundred years ago—when she .mil iier native Parliament, elected from die Protestants on a Protestant suffrage, but with the great salient feature that it was composed of Irishmen mil guided by Irish lliought—with th.i pres.mt day stale oi niluirs, Mr De\ - ,in showed that under the former ride, .udiisti'ies, agriculture and art advanced in leaps and bounds, and the popuation of Ireland was about nine millions. Sim, under the rule of the London bureaucracy, there were idle factories, empty mills, smiling farms reduced to waste —silent monuments if destroyed industrial power—and lite population reduced to -1 1 /. millions. Hailstone bad declared that never in .lie history of human perlidy had a .ducker transaction soiled the pages ot ...listury than the manner in which the .•(iiisUtulional liberty of Ireland had tiecn destroyed, and the country rob;ied of its Parliament. As a result jf English misrule, people had been .milled from Ireland, smiling villages iiad given place to cattle ranches and .heep walks, and the (lower of the Irish nation was annually leasing rain's shores to devote their talent to the building up of the countries that .til'orded them a home. The dramalie feature was that of the 40,(100 annual exodus, U.) per cent varied in ages from 12 years to -1.) years, only the aged, decrepit, and economically useess • remained behind. If this went on the Irish wojdd soon lie a people without a cradle, a race without a fatherland. .Nothing would heal the injuries to Jre'limd but self-govern-ment. Jlr Devlin showed that conditions in Ireland were not improv ing, that the country was over-taxed, that the peasant, labourers on the princely wages of Ss per week were Housed ill hovels compared with which the landlords' dug kennels \\i-n' as castles; that one in every hundred peop'le in Ireland was a pauper, in a workhouse, one in -1-1 existing on outdoor relief; and lunacy, cancer, and consumption were on the increase on iceounl of wretched housing, food and clothing. How long would the Xew Zealanders submit to a Covcrnnienl which arrested enterprise, choked industries, ruined agricultural advance meat, and brought disaster upon a liai'd-workiug, contented people? lie showed that despite the lull in peculation, taxation per head had increased from Ids lid to .« His Id'per head, and police, judicial, and local govern nient systems were intolerably expensive without adequate return: millions more than Scotland, with a similar population, although Ireland's crime sheet could nowhere approach that of Scotland, Jlr Joseph Cham bcrlain compared English rule of Irelaud with Russia's treatment of Poland! And this to a nation whose soldiers, sailors, diplomats, orators, peels and singers were in the forefront, whose country was endowed with every natural advantage of beauty and pro 'lnfinity, 'three statements were advanced by Home itule antagonists(l) That Home Kulo would mean disincniberment 0 f ti lc |.;,„j,i,. ( .. ( (Jmt Home Rule.would meiji, •\|;ynie~Kule"; (?) that Ihe Irish people were jncapable ot managing their own affairs, in eloquent terms he answered the first • >.v parallels, quoting Canada, Australia, and Xew Zealand as oxamp'e.s of the tightening „f the Imperial l,o M ds Us a result of freedo,,, o{ governnumt; die second, n r showing 'a,,,,, |.,. oU , st . ants and Catholics were uniting in Ireland tor the ••cause," Prolc-Taiil, rcprosenlhig many of (|,„ Vntb „ n ,, '■»»»ti Mcueies. and |„, !,i,„,."f (.„„,. «""■•,» li Lib Hie g,v,a( Pr 0!,,!,,,,, cons ilm-m-y „( |i,,; M . „,„, ,)„. Ulml by showing thai Ireland was the un> Place in the .i;,„,,i 1 . 0 Wm , r(J },:•. • were not allowed to appi" ':>.''.. ",' ■■'"t remnant, oi a ]■,.,.,, .-..,.„. ,- lion in. Hi.. •., ■ i , " 'x'uic--.ir,::.;:;";:.';!,'!,!;' 1 :-, 1 !;; "*»"- r;,::T;t:f;;:;: ""; "'",' ";'" over, ihe battle endoi 'j:: 1 "■'■■■: ami he knew tin- > '"""'■-' " 1,,,11 l lull en (he ear,-; of his '"""t'TMlell like the sweet l„„ , i H..- Irish v..H,,..r l„.|:» „,|l illir , llt .':, * ** , . (I ~10,g,,| applause.) II." ...eei,-,,.; :!n"T mw "' 1 " I '" ,if l Devlin. AuU.MVeTIMfIVW i "l"'uon that ir" " f f..r s *,T; f ;'"' l mm '<' i" Australia V' - •/ , \ lUid Canada, in stream, ,*,„, L L ot «1 consolidating (he "£ j Tin. IV,- r> n 0I F 4 i'«, ""' *' Wl " 1 ""' »"<> *>'' " !k;Sk n '"■■ :Ud ' lu,ima n, »° i (]|i Jl. : | u niotion was „„,,,„, llllli(]st * (Hanks ""ti": '", ."f t0 lvtnm ti vole of thanks to th'lellai'r. was'loudly 1 •lecrciU and the melting dosed with • the singmg of Ulo X,|jo,ial Anthem. : c, Mr », .McJSlnn W

played ii programme, of Irish music dri-ine,' Hi'-' evening:. At (In. conclusion <if tli : . lecture. Air and Mrs H.O'llricn invited .Mr Devlin. Willi tile members of tlic eommittee and I'liends, in ;i siipp'T ill tile Cri i"i'ion Hotel. Mr \V. T. .fennings, M U.K.. ocupied the head of the table, ~.„| !i,- f i called iip.ni llu; Kev. 11. Bmdhiirv in propose the toast of the (1 . ift.ee who hail brought the meeting tn Mich u successful issue. Dr. McCleland returned thank* on behalf iif the committee. Air Devlin, in welliliusen words, proposed the toast ot lie- host mill hostess for their uingui lieent Inipitnlitv and the excellent ••■upper tliev bad' provided. Alv O'Brien responded.' Air W. U. Alalone prolinked -1101111' Rule for Ireland, 1 ' eoup'ed Willi the nam-' of Air Devlin. Mr \\. Kerr also spoke, on tho subject, and was (he means of calling forth a most feeling and sympathetic reply from Air Devlin. A most enjoyable gathering was brought to u close vita the singing of "Auld 'Lang Syne."