The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1884. THE PROSPECTS OF IRELAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1122, 5 January 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1884. THE PROSPECTS OF IRELAND.

We often hear people asking the question " What good has the Parnell agitation done for Ireland ?" We are not surprised that people know nothing of the facts of the case. We get from newspapers in this colony only very one-sided views of what is occurring with regard to Irish affairs. Everything calculated to throw odium on the National movement is telegraphed to us with extraordinary celerity, but the bright side of the picture is bespattered with the vilest vituperation, till nothing but a disgusting daub remains for us in this colony to inspect. It is therefore nothing wonderful if we in this colony are ignorant with regard to Ireland, for no one except such persona as study Home papers can know what is going on. Anyone who has paid any attention to the matter, however, knows very well that more good has been done for Ireland during the last few years than all that had boen previously done since the Emancipation of the Catholics put together. In the first place tho Irish railway system is different from ours. Here the Government own and

work the railways ; there they are in the bands of private companies. These companies construct no railways except such as yield enormous profits, and consequently a great many districts suffer through their means of communication being very inefficient. In Ireland towns with a population larger than Timaru have no railway station nearer to them than 10 or 20 miles. Through the exertions of Mr Parnell and his followers an Act called " The Tramways Act" was passed last session, the object of which is to supply this want. So far as we can learn any district can borrow money from the Board of Works to construct a tramway, and pay it back in a very easy way. We are sure that every one will admit that this will do a great deal of good. Another Act was passed last year which was very badly wanted, It is entitled, if we remember rightly, " The Laborers Act." Its principles consist in that any ten or more laborers in any district can requisition the local Board of Guardians to build houses for them. If the farmers on whose lands the houses are do not build them, the Board of Guardians take the matter into their own hands. They raise a loan on the security of the rates of the Union, build the Louses, to which a piece of land is to be attached, and the terms on which the money is to be repaid are so easy that the rents from the cottages are expected to liquidate the debt. It is a well known fact that the Irish laborer has hitherto been the worst housed in Europe, and anyone who can sympathise with human suffering will be glad to learn that the prospect of that hard-working wretch has been improved. In no other civilized conn try is the laborer so badly treated, and if the Parnellites did nothiag more than to improve his position they ought to receive the eternal gratitude of any one who possesses one spark of human feeling. But the Parnellites have done a great deal more. Through their instrumentality a Land Act of unparallelled liberality has been passed, and it has resulted in an immense gain to the country. Hitherto the landlord had only to serve a few month's notice on a tenant to enable him to evict him from his holding neck and crop. Now things are different. If the landlord wants to get rid of a tenant the latter has the option of selling the goodwill of his holding, and owing lo agitation, and the restrictions the law has placed upon the landlord, it is computed that the value of the tenant's interest in the land is very nearly equal to the interest the landlord has in it. In other words, the value of the. landlords' property has depreciated by nearly one half, and this one half goes to the tenant. In the old times when a landlord got rid of a tenant he generally got a bonus of £SO, £IOO, £SOO, or »o on, according to the value, from t'ie incoming tenant, and probably a rise of rent. Now this bonus and the value of improvements go to the tenant, while the rent is fixed by the Court and cannot be raised. Hitherto it was to the interest of landlords to evict their tenants, for land wai so scarce that they were always sure to find persons to give them a bonus for vacant farms. This is what has led to all the misery. A* soon as a farm became vacant there were as many applicants for it as there would be for a Government billet in | this colony, and this of course induced the landlords to pile on the price. It was against this system the Land League first inveighed. The leaders of the movement saw that so long as there were people ready to take up farms from which others had been evicted nothing could be done, and so they they got the people to pledge themselves that they would have nothing to do with them. Such as broke the pledge were boycotted, and thus the system was practically knocked on the head. As to the fixing of rent we have only to quote the following extract from the judgment of the Com missioners who inquired into the rents charged on the estate of the Rev. James Fitzgerald, which is situated at a place called The Camp, between Dingle and Tralee. The reductions were as follows : Tenant. Old Ren!. New Rent. ;

£ s d £ • d Garrett Grallivan 20 0 0 12 0 0 Michael Hartney 11 0 0 5 0 0 John ReeTes 5 6 0 3 0 0 This will show the good tho Land Act has done. It will be seen that this Godfearing clergyman was charging over 75 per cent more rent than the land was worth. The Court fixed the ront of the three holdings put together at £2O, although the Eev, Mr Fitzgerald had been receiving £36 6d for them. Can it he said it was honest of the rev. gentleman to exact such exorbitant rents? Does it notions very much like extortion? And yet the reduction* '

made on this estate were nothing to what occurred on the properties of the fox-hanting rackrenters. We remembar reading an instance of the rent of a farm having been reduced from £7O to £3O a year. But the reductions in rents is not all. There ate provisions in the Act which enable farmers to borrow money on easy terms to drain and improve their farms, and if they are disturbed in their occupation of it afterwards they can get compensation for anything they do in the way of improvements. These are some of the enactments that Mr Parnell and his followers have obtained for Ireland. We know that many will say it was the British Government and not Mr Parnell that passed these measure*, but such an assertion is easily set 'aside byi pointing out that for the last sixty years! the Irish farmers have been agitating! for a reform in their land laws. During that time Ireland has experienced several rebellious movements, and scores of Coercion Acts hare been passed to- keep the people under subjection, or ia fact to prevent them from protesting', against the robberies of the landlords. Four years ago, when the country was famine-stricken, Mr Parnell" brought in a Bill entitled the. Compensation for Disturbance Bill ; the object of which was that tenants should get compensation for improvements made on their farms, if evicted from them. This was, one would think, only just, but the Bill was thrown out by the House of Lords. -It was this led to the formation of the Land League. When Mr Parnell saw there was no hope from Parliament, he, at the suggestion of Michael Davitt, started the Land League on the trades union principle—the chief characteristic of which was that no farmer should take up land from which another • had been evicted, and that every tenant should only pay fair rent. The whole country joined ; the people found that in this way their tyrant landlord could be crushed. - Parnell and his followers were thrown into prison till the gaols were full of them, but the more they imprisoned the more turbulent the country became. At last, finding himself defeated, Mr Gladstone entered into a treaty with Mr Parnell, that he and his followers should be released from gaol, that the Land Bill would be carried, and that Mr Foster should be dismissed from the Ministry, provided that Mr Parnell would assist in putting down the disturbance that was then rife. Only for the Phoenix Park murders Ireland would have ceived many other concessions at this time, but that alienated the sympathy of the radical element in England, and thus strengthened the hands of the Government very much. In the face of these facts we think that Mr Parnell is entitled to all the credit of having obtained the concessions referred to above, and on these grounds we have no hesitation in saying that he has done more substantial good for In-land in three years than lias ever been done before.