The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1887. THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1586, 24 May 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1887. THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE.

In Ireland Irishmen have declined to take any part in celebrating the Queen's Jubilee, and we must Bay they have a good excuse for it. While preparations are being made throughout the length and breadth of the British Empire for this celebration the Tory Government of England is forging the most harsh, the most cruel, and the most hateful fetters for Ireland that its despotic genius could inv-nt. Ireland is at present peaceable. There is no crime in Ireland except that which attends the cruel exactions' of a relentless landocracy. The disturbances which wholesale evictions produco, constitute almoHt exclusively the crime of Ireland at present. A great many leading Englishmen—even the great Mr Gladstone himself—hold that the poor tenants have justice on their side. The London Times has said that owing to the great fall in prices it is impossible for the tenants to pay the rents demanded of them, and the present Government admitted this by making efforts in ths beginning to restrain over-exacting landlords from evicting their tenants. Since Lord Randolph Churchill resigned, however, the tenants have been handed over to their cruel masters' mercy. As a commencement Sir Robert Hamilton whs superseded in the Under-Secretaryship for Ireland because he sympathised with the Irish tenants. General Sir Redvern Buller succeeded him as Under-Secretary, but he showed a strong leaning towards the poor tenants, and he was also dismissed and Colonel King Harman, the most relentless enemy of the tenants that could be selected, was appointed to the office. Since then Mr Stead, of the Pt.ll Mall Gazette, has fished Ireland, and, in his own epigrammatic way, said there was nothing illegal in Ireland except the law. "Buckshot" Forster earned unenviable notoriety for having instrocted the police to use buckshot in their rifles, but, to use Lord Byron's words), " he was the mildestmannered man that ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat," compared with Mr Balfour, who now fills the post of Chief Secretary. On his appointment Mr Balfour called a meeting of the Divisional Magistrates, and presumably as a result Captain Plunketc—one of these Magistrates —sent a telegram to Police Inspector Somerville at Youghall " to shoot them down like dogs," meaning the tenants of the Ponsonby estate, rho were resisting eviction from their homeß. A young man named Hanlon—a widow's sonwas killed by the police, and a coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against Insptctor Somerville and one of his men, but of course nothing will happen to tbera. To aggravate matters more Father Keller, the parish priest of Youghall—a man who it is said never took part in politics—was seat to gaol because tie would not divulge the secrets confided to him by his flock. It is, we believe, illegal >o call upon either lawyers, doctors, or clergymen to divulge eeetets confided to them, yet Father Keller is now in prison because he has refused to degrade his sacred calling by turning infomer against his own flock. Now all this has been done to provoke the people to commit crime, so that the Tory Government might have an excuse for passing the Coercion Bill now before the House of Commons. There is less crime in Ireland now than there was under the late Coercion Act, and the only thing aimed at is to put down the National League, To carry out this purpose there is now before the House of Commons the most outrageously harsh and cruel Coercion Bill that perverted ingenuity could devise. Amongst other things it proposes to suspend trial by jury, give magistrates power to keep people in prison without trial, and enable the Crown to take criminals to England and have them tried there by English julges and juries. This was never attempted before. Hitherto the Crown depended on packed juries for verdictn, but they have abandoned this course now. Recently Catholic prisoners were taken from a Catholic county into a Protestant town, and the Protestant jury empanelled there acquitted them. John Dillon, M.P., and William O'Brien, M.P., were committed to take their trial in Dublin recently, but the venue was changed to the County Court, with the hope that a more " impartial" jury might be found there, but they were acquitted. It is because Protestant jurors , in these cases have refused to convict

prisoners tbut the Government have introduced a Bill to suspoud trial by jury in Ireland, and to change the venue (o England. AH these things would be galling at any time, but they are ten times more so on the occasion of the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen. This is a year when efforts should be made to rectify longstanding wrongs, heal up old sores, and reconcile j wring elements ; a year when e>ren the criminal in bis prison cell hopes to obtain a pardon, yet it is the year selected by the Tory Government of England to deprive Ireland of her last shred of liberty—trial by jury. It could not be expected that Ireland could feel very jubilant under these circumstances, and if she refuses to join with the remainder of the Empire iu the rejoicings which are being prepared, it is hard to blame her. But the question which probably interests Irishmen in this colony most is : Should they abstain from taking part in Jubilee celebrations because of the above considerations? Our answer is, We do not think they should. We understand thoroughly the love an irishman bears for his native country, and the pain he feels at seeing her misgoverned, and can fully sympathise with his indignation at finding her now, on tho occasion of the Jubilee, the only spot in the Empire ruled at the point of the bayonet. •It is not Ireland's fault, but the fault of bad laws that such is the case. Vexatious as these things are we think. Irishmen should not allow them, to stand in their way in joining their fellow-colonists in the coming celebrations for the following reasons: First, By abstaining from taking any part in the celebrations they can do no good either to themselves or to Ireland, whil9 many would be only too rendy to put their action down to disloyalty. Now Irishmen are not disloyal in this colony, and if any foreign power attacked ber tomorrow the Irishmen would be found in the front ranks of her defenders. To abstain from taking part in the celebrations therefore would have only one effect—that is, do themselves an injustice by giving room for the accusation of disloyalty being hurled against them. The second reason is that it is not desirable to cnuse any estrangement between sections of the community by the introduction of the Old World feuds and politics. We ought all to feel that we are citiEens of New Zealand now • that although a part of the Empire we are quite independent, and we ought to feel a pride in our independence, and in the beautiful country in which we are laying the foundation of a new nationality. It woald be unnatural for people out here to forget their friend? at Home ; they can sympathise with them, and yet fu'fil the duties of citizenship. We sympathise with Ireland to the fullest extent, but we are not going to carry that feeling to a degree that would lead to being misunderstood. We feel proud of and love New Zealand ; our children and children's children will be New Zealanders ; and as the Americans now boast of their nationality, so will future generations of Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen, cemented together by the bonds of a common country, take a pride in beiug the sons of the most beautiful, the most bountiful, and the best land beneath the canopy of Heaven. While living on term* of amity and goodwill, all may do what they can for the land of their birth, but to do anything which can do mors harm than good is a mistake. There is still a higher and a nobler reason why Irishmen should not hold aloof from these celebrations, and it is this: Nine cut of every ten of their fellow colonists are favorable to justice for Ireland, and would vote to giyn her her own Parliament. Public meetings in the chief centres of population have unanimously endorsed this sentiment; the Parliamentary Unions have carried by immense majorities resolutions in favor of Home Rule ; our representatives in Parliament are using their influence to hasten the concassion of that great boon, and in fact there is not a public man in any of the colonies worth hia salt who has not pronounced in its favor in the moat unequivocal terms. Even the great mHJority of Englishmen at Home favor Home Rule, and it is only being withheld now by the landlord faction, who cling to their fist declining privileges like grim death. Seeing this, the duty of Irishmen should be to foster 'and promote in every possible way this kindly feeling towards their native lauu, and they cannot do this more effectively than by being liberal in their own actions. On these grounds we think their duty is clear, and it appears they have already realised this, for in many places they are taking au active part in the preliminary proceedings. In Christchurch the Rev, Father Ginaty is a member of the Celebration Committee, <ind even in this district as sterling an Irishman as ever breathed has collected between £9 and £lO, with the view of holding jubilations in his own locality. We are glad of this. Irishmen have good reasons for feeling incensed at the present time, and if they put all such considerations aside on the occasion of the coming celebrations and join in the movement it will greatly redound to their credit.