The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1886. STATE OF IRELAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1521, 4 December 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1886. STATE OF IRELAND.

Poor unfortunate Ireland is to have Ntotber doie of the vile nostrum with which she has beau sa frequently treated unsuccesifully, Coercion—that baneful source of mischief and murder; the weapon which has been so often used in rain to break a spirit which would not bend—is to be employed once more to Wrench from the poor Irish peasant the morsel of food which he has to keep himself and his family from starving. To understand the exact position of affairs io Ireland now it is necessary to take a retrospective view of what has occurred for the last few years. In 1877 the potato crop, to the value of £7,200,000, failed, and the following year the same crop failed, to the value of £5,500,000. The result was ruin, starvation, and famine, and collections were made throughout the world to keep the Irish people from starving. The Tories, then in power, would do nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the people, but in 1880 Mr Gladstone assumed the reins of government, and brought in a Bill entitled tha “ Compensation for Disturbance Bill,” which provided that where a tenant had made improvements on the land, and was evicted through inability to pay rent, the landlord should allow (or the value of the improvements. Nothing could be more reasonable than that the tenants should be paid for improvements, but the House of Lords did not think so, and they threw out the Bill. As soon as this Bill was thrown out the Irish people lost all hops of Parliament ever doing anything for them, and then was formed the Land League—the most powerful organisation that has ever existed in Ireland. Coercion, imprisonment on mere suspicion, and without a trial, police oppression, military rule, even to the extent of shooting people with buckshot, was resorted to by “ Buckshot Forster” to suppress the Land League, but it lived a terror to landlords and land grabbers, till the new Land Act was passed in 1881. This Act provided for tho value of land* being assessed io a Lend Court, and a fair rent was fixed upon it, and the rent then fixed is the rents landlords are demanding ROW. We ail know that the products of the soil have depreciated in value to an enormous extent since 1881, and that it ia impossible to pay the same rent for land now as could be paid five years ago, yet the Irish landlord wants bis “ pound of flesh,” and will not brook any abatement. In conversation with a gentleman who lives in South Canterbury, and who owns land in Ireland, a few days ago we ascertained that cattle which a few years ago sold for £6 will not rallies now more than between £2 and £B, and everything the farmers have te sell has equally depreciated in value, Seeiig this, Mr Parnell introduced a Bill into Parliament, just before the recent prorogation, providing that there should be a revaluation of the land, and that no tenant should be evicted in the meantime. To support this Bill the aged and illustrious statesman—Mr Gladstone—hastened Home from bit Continental tour, gathered around him bis followers, and made a moat eloquent appeal to the Tory Government to pass it. Lord Randolph Churchill and mauy of <he Ministers were favorable to (he measure, bat the

Marqnie of Hartingion would not hear of it, and to it was thrown oat. Exactly in the same way that the Bill in 1880 was thrown out so was the Bill of 1886. The rejection of the Bill of 1880 led to all the mischief that succeeded it, and, without doubt, similar consequences will follow the action of the Tories in 1886. But, though the Tory Goy-rnment rejected Mr Parnell’s Bill, they hare made efforts to atop evictions. They sent round circulars to «1! landlords asking refrain from evicting their tenanlo uUi.u B ' the coming winter, bat they might as well appeal to hungry wolves bent on feasting on an innocent lamb. The landlords are striding their tenants now all over tho land, and ruin, desolation and misery overspread th« country. There is one thing in connection with this matter which must appeal to anyone who is not altogether insensible to human suffering : the tenants cannot pay the rent through no fault of their own. It is not their fault that produce has depreciated in value by shorn 50 per cent., and when such is the case it would be only reasonable to ask the landlords to bear a share of the loss. This is all the Irish tenants want ; this is all Mr Parnell’s Bill provided for, but Sbylock never demanded the fall payment of his bond more unrelentingly than the landlords claim every penny of j their rents. And the way the English j Government is backing np the landlords in exacting rents, which even the London limes says cannot be paid, is a disgrace to our civilisation. The Tory Government know full well that the

Mnt cannot be paid, yet they are pouring into the country thousands of soldiers for the purpose of assisting the land-1 lords in evicting their tenants. In 1 doing this they become aiders and j abettors in exacting from the tenants rente which they know it is impossible to pay, and dishonest to claim. It has always been so, Tory Governmentt haye seldom, or never, retired from office without leaving Ireland in a state bordering on rebellion. They left ber in a fearful state in 1880, and it took the Gladstone Ministry five years to pacify her. There is no doubt but history will repeat itself now. The The Tories will have recourse to the traditional means of suppressing the national aspirations of Ireland, bat the English nation will eoon become disgusted with on account of their atrocious management of Irish affairs, and when the country is maddened by every species of persecution the work of pacifying her will have to be undertaken by Mr Gladstone. There was not a country in Europe more peaceable than Ireland from (be time Mr Gladstone undertook to lead in the Homs Rule movement to the preaent time. Grime was hardly known, and Judges and Chairmen of quarter sessions have be» n frequently presented with white gloves at Courts where not a single cue* waa set down for them to hear. Fancy 5,000,000 of inhabitants in a country not larger than Canterbury and Otago, and yet not a single case for hearing at a quarterly sitting of a Court in a town latger than Dunedin 1 That proves the peaceable disposition of the people if they only got fair play, bat who can blame them when they are treated with a harshness unparalleled under a con-' atitutional form of government? Clifford Lloyd was applauded for his actions in suppressing the national aspirations of Ireland ; so well did bo perform his task that he was seat to Egypt, but he was so harsh and cruel that he had to return Home a discredited man. The tyranny which he exercised in Ireland would not be tolerated in Egypt, It is the outrageous, cruel way in which the Irish people are treated that drives them to commit crime, and we. greatly fear that during the next few mouths moonlighting and outrages will become as common in Ireland as they were in 1880, cn account of the stupidity of the English Government in backing up the landlords in their unholy work of evicting their tenants.