The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1883. IRISH OUTRAGES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1165, 25 October 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1883. IRISH OUTRAGES.

On the sth of September last every paper in the Australian colonies that was printed on that date published the following cablegram, >vhich came through Reuter's agency :

London, Sept. 3

Accounts are to hand of a dastardly outrage which has been committed at New Ross, county Wexford. A party of forty harvesters who were engaged in getting in crops on a property in the vicinity of the town were bnyp H?d by the residents. Subsequently, however, they were supplied with food which proved to have been poisoned. The atrocity was successful, two of the men having died and others being in a critical state.

Every man, woman and child who read the above cablegram felt horrified at the brutal character of the outrage. It was of such a revolting nature that its effect was only second in point of atrocity to the "Phoenix Park assassination. The Home papers to hand yesterday, however, place the matter in a (slightly different light. On the same date that Reuter's agent cabled as above to the colonies the following telegram fiom the correspondent of the Press association at New Ross appeared in the Home papers : On the 24th ult., Mr F A Leigh, J.P., of Rosegarland, near Ne«v Ross, discovered one of his cattle struck with dry murraine, and, as was his custom in such cases, he directed that it should be shot, salted, and given to his laborers during the harvest. Part of the meat was served out to the laborers in the harvest field. On the following Thursday Dr Cardiff was summoned to attend twenty-eight of Mr Leigh's laborers, whom he found suffering from irritant poisoning, and next day a young man named Patrick Furlong died. Dr Cardiff then made inquiries, and found that all the sick persons had eaten of the beef supplied by Mr Leigh. On Saturday and Sunday the patients had increased to forty, and on Sunday morning another young man named James Whelan died. The sick now number forty-five. The Freeman's correspondent, writing on the 4th, says : Since the death of Patrick Furlong two men named James Whelan aud James Power have also died. An inquest was held last evening on the body of James Whelan, who died on the previous day. A postmortem examination was made by Doctors Cardiff and Boyd, and the medical testimony was that death was caused by an irritant poison. The inquest has been postponed until Friday, as the stomach and portions of the viscera, and also samples of the beer, beef, and salt used by Mr Leigh's harvesters on Monday, the 27th ult., have been forwarded to Dr Cameron, of Dublin, for analysis. It is stated that Dr Cameron will not be able to report his opinion until about the 14th instant. About twenty-seven of the persons affected are still suffering from the symp toms of poisoning. Five of the number are reported to be in a most precarious condition.

The fact that the date is the same, the scene the same, the number poisoned and the number dead, are the same in the Press associations telegram published in the Home papers and in the cablegram sent to these colonies, shows that it was from what appeared in the papers that Reuter's agent manufactured this fearful outrage for our delectation. It could not, therefore, have been the result of a mistake. There is not the slightest reference made to boycottiDg ; the story is plainly told, viz., that it was a case of accidental poisoning, and that there is not even a suspicion of any foul play. And yet out of this accident Reuter's agent manufactured the most heinous outrage that it would be possible,for the mind of man to conceive, for no other purpose than to create hatred of Ireland and of Irishmen in these far off dependencies of the British Empire. This is the way Irish outrages are frequently manufactured, and it is such misrepresentations as this that has given colonists such distorted views of the situation in Ireland. There is an old Jacobite rhyme which runs as follows :

Some say the Devil's dead, Some say the Devil's dead, Some say the Devil's dead, And buried in Killarney. Some say he rose again, Some say he rose again, Some say he ro9e again, And enlisted iu the Army,

As the Devil is said to be the Father of Lies, it appears to us that he must have deserted the Army, and is at present inspiring Ileuter's Agent in London. But it is not necessary to comment further upon the subject. That there should he a miscreant so unscrupulous as to resort to such a villainous means as the fabrication of wicked, mischievous lies for the purpose of bringing discredit upon any cnuse, whether right or .wrong, is what all men must deplore. To do such a thins is to commit a moral outrage, and every right thinking man must condemn the adoption of such tactics. The object in view ia plain. Mr J. E. Redmond is M.P. for New Ross, and a.s Mr Redmond was lecturing in these colonies at the time, it was thought that the publication of this outrage would result in his utter discomfiture. Colonists, however.

are not so unjust nor so easily gulled ay the manaracturer of Router's cablegrams would wish. Despite this effort of Reuter's Agent Mr tiedmond has been heard, and has made a favorable impression on the minds not only of his cornpatriots, but of many who knew very little about the demands of the National League before. We look upon this as one of the greatest moral outrages that has ever been perpetrated.