The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1883. THE IRISH DELEGATES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1163, 20 October 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1883. THE IRISH DELEGATES.

The Colony of New Zealand may be congratulated on the attitude with which it has received the delegates of the Irißh Land League. Nowhere has there been any bigotry or intolerance exhibited towards them by those who cannot fall in with their views, and nowhere has there been any excessive demonstrations of sympathy with them. This is just as it ought to be. The Irish delegates have as good a right to lecture throughout this colony as the Rev Charles Clark, Professor Denton, Mr Proctor or any other man, so long as they do not disturb the peace or tranquility of colonists, and Irishmen have a perfect right to give them their money and their sympathy if they chooße to do so. There is therefore nothing in the whole proceeding which ought to cause the slightest degree of annoyance, and yet very bitter feeling was created in the other colonies, through opposition having been offered to the Irish delegates. Sir Henry Parkes called an indignation meeting to protest against them, public halls were refused to them, and nswspapers misrepresented them in a most Untruthful manner. All this created a feeling of bitterness, which will not be forgotten for a long time. In this colony we are glad to say things are altogether different. Everywhere the delegates are meeting with warm but undemonstrative receptions; those who sympathise with them attend their lectures, and pay such sums of money as th6y think; proper. They obtain the use of halls ; they lecture and move on to theinext town, and those who approve and object settle down to their various occupations as good friends, and as well satisfied with each other, as they had been before. It is to the credit of the Colony that its people have behaved with so much good sense, and we have no doubt but that the spirit of toleration with which they have been received will be duly appreciated. Whilst giving due credit to the people of New Zealand for not following in the footsteps of the other colonies, we must say that had they acted otherwise they would have done injustice to two of ihe purest patriots that ever any country gave birth to. Messrs Redmond Bros, are no self-seeking agitators who have no aim in view, but their own self aggrandisement. They are gentlemen bora and educated; their father once I represented the Borough of Wexford in the Imperial Parliament, to which seat the youngest of them, Mr W. K; Redmond, has been elected in his absence in Aus tralia. Both are members of Parliament, Mr J. E, Redmond being member for New Ross. Besides this they belong to the landlord class themselves, the Tery class they have come to denounce, and it must therefore be obvious to every right-thinking man whether he approves of them or not, that their motives are pure and honest. They have given up comfort and ease, they must of necessity have lost caste amongst their own class; in fact they seem to have giren up all for the sake of their country, and if it were for nothing else but this it appears to us that they deserve the respect of every one. Pure patriotic feelings have been respected, honored and venerated from the earliest periods of civilisation, they have inspired the poet's muse, and the historian's pen, and though misrepresentations and misunderstandings throw a cloud over the Redmonds to-day,; the time will come when they will received an honored place in history. Neither Parnell nor the Redmonds were ever more maligned than Daniel O'Gonneli was once, and yet it is only a few months since Mr Gladstone expressed himself to the effect that Daniel O'Connell was the purest and grandest patriot of modern times. Only a few years ago the centenary of O'Connell was celebrated throughout al most the whole breadth of the civilised world, and Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, and Americans vied with each other in lavishing praise on the great patriot. There is not the slightest doubt but that the centenary of Parnell will be celebrated with greatere'cfotf

if possible, and that the next generation of Englishmen will be as lavish of their 1 praise of him as the present have been with regard to O'Oonnell. The next ' generation of Englishmen will have far greater reasons for venerating the name of Parnell. His exposure of Irish landlordism hag opened the eyes of not only England, but of the whole | civilised world, and so sure as there is an agitation in England now, it will ultimately lead to greater reforms and more liberal laws than any one has dreamt of. According to the Registrar-General of England, 1250 persons die of starvation overy year in London, 5000 die of 'slow starvation,' countless people commit suicide through sheer want, while the greatest portion o? the depravity and crime amongst women is the result of too much work and too little pay. This is not a very nice record for the most civilised and the richest nation in the world to have. It is evident that there is something radically wrong in the social system which gives such results, and that % remedy for it is necessary. As Mr George tersely puts it ' The wealthy are getting wealthier, and the poor are getting poorer' every day. It was scenes of starvation of hunger, and of misery, and of the rich man trampling on the poo'", that brought Mr Parnell and hiß followers into such activity. They have worked with a determination and a consistency perhaps never surpassed, and though they are misrepresented, misinterpreted, and maligned at present, their names will live imperishably in the pages of history. The agitation which they have started will lead to reforms not only in Ireland, but in England, and their names will yet be remembered with gratitude by the suffering peasantry of the United Kingdom.