The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1890. A CONTRAST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2143, 30 December 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1890. A CONTRAST.

Before the industries of Ireland were destroyed its population was considerably over 8,000,000 of people ; now it has dwindled down to about 4,500,000. This is a terrible falling off. England's population has nearly daubled in the meantime, Fvery country has increased its population except Ireland, and yet after all this depletion, the only cure for the famine and the depression in that country, according to Mr Balfour is emigration. Mr Balfour has visited the famine-stricken parts of Ireland ; come to the conclusion that ths holdings of the peasentry are two small, and that the eure for the woes and miseries he witnessed was emigration. Some of the people must leave the country, and the holdings of those who remain must be enlarged. That is certainly one way of dealing with them, but it is neither statesmanlike nor honest. It is certainly tyrannical on the part of any government to say to any one, " There is no room tor you in this I country, you must clear out of it." Everyone has a right to a home in the , land of his birth, and it is certainly a parody on justice and Government to deny him that right. But the wrong is aggravated when the facts of the case become known. Ireland is one of the most fruitful countries on the face of the earth, and would have been one of the most prosperous only that her iadustries were destroyed so as to put them out of competition with English industry. The consequence was, of course, that when all other industries were destroyed, the people had to turn their attention exclusively to land, with the result that it had to be cut up into small holdings so as to give all something to live on. The position was still made worse by the fact that the best land was reserved by the landlords as domains, deer parks, etc. Thus their industries were destroyed, and the best of the land was locked up in large areas, while absentee landlords drained the country of its lifeblood. This is the secret of Ireland's misery, and if we examine it closely we can easily see that we are just coming to the same state of things in this coloqfr. We have no industries worth speaking of, and the powers that be will not allow us to promote fcnem by giving them protection from foreign competition. Our lands are locked up in large areas, and we suffer from the absentee curse to a far greater extent than Ireland. All the money we have borrowed belongs to absentees; one-third of the freehold land of this colony belongs to absentees ; almost all the shares of all our public companies belong to absentees, and so on ; in fact, we may say that practically the colony belongs to absentees, and we, the people belong body and soul to them also, The same conditions which have created misery in Ireland are present in JSew Zealand, and are producing similar results. Small as our population is the people cannot find remunerative employment, and consequently they have to flee from the country. It is a very bad state of affairs, but we are greatly afraid things will be worse before they are better. We have just elected a Parliament which cannot do good, because neither party ia strong enough to do anything in spite of the other, The result of course must be that nothing will be done. Still nothing else is possible. The electors of this colony rote according to their prejudices, instead of on political grounds, and henue all the trouble. It is an evil which cannot be got rid of yery easily, We could cut up large estates and compel absentees to eoutribute to the revenue ; we could make the colony prosperous by means of legislation, but we cannot see that there is the slightest hope of it. The law makes all men equal, the law makes all men free, but the men themselves have reduced themselves to absolute slavery; They are the alares of prejudices, and it is really difficult to effect any improvement in the position of self-made slaves. The prospects of thia colony are gloomy, more gloomy in fact than those of Ireland,

Ireland has rent asunder the shackles of prejudice. Irishmen have thrown sideissues to the wind,- and gone straight for the main questions. The other day Mr Balfour offered Catholic education but it was scornfully thrown back in his teeth, notwithstanding that the Bishops and Priests favored it. Until New Zealanders trample under foot all side-issues, and vote on the main questions, they cannot aspect any improvement in our position, and the sooner they realise it the better.