THE ULSTER QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2388, 28 July 1892, Page 3

THE ULSTER QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — I read with pleasure your article on the Ulster Question. I quite agree with you that there would be no fear of Catholics persecuting Protestants in Ireland, and it is not of that the Protestants are afraid at all, but of losing certain advantages which they now possess. They at present enjoy a monopoly of the loaves and fishes in public positions, and they are afraid they would have to give a share to the Catholics if Home Rule were granted. Take Belfast, for instance : there are 70,000 Catholics in that city, yet, there is not one Catholic in the city council. Mr Sexton, during last session, when the Belfast Lunatic Asylum Bill was before Parliament, moved for the insertion of a clause for arranging the city into wards, so that Catholics might have an opportunity of being elected. Sir E. Haiiand said that Belfast was not an Irish city, and that Catholics had nothing to complain of, and the motion was rejected by 195 to 172 votes. In the Belfast Examiner of May 14,1892, there appears a report by which I learn that the Rev. Father O’Kane requested the Board of Guardians to appoint some Roman Catholic nurses, who would understand and sympathise with Catholics when dying, and call in a priest to administer the comforts of religion. The Board of Guardians unanimously rejected the request, and Father O’Kane says some of the Catholics are allowed to die without the ministrations of the Church. Mr Edmund Harvey, a Protestant gentleman of the County Waterford, in a recent pamphlet, says that there are 16,000 Catholics, and 12,400 Protestants in Derry, yet there has not been a Catholic mayor of Derry for over 100 years. In England the Municipal franchise is £lO valuation, equal to £l7 rental; in Ireland it is £2O valuation, equal to £25 rental, and the result of the high franchise in Ireland is that the great bulk of the Catholics, owing to their poverty, have no votes. Hence, their want of power at Municipal elections. Mr Harvey continues : “In the south of Ireland, where the Catholics are in a large majority, there have been a great many instances of Protestants being elected as mayors of Catholic towns through the courtesy of their Catholic fellow-citizens,” and again he says : “ During my residence of 40 years in Ireland I have not observed any instance amongst iny Catholic friends and neighbors, of religious or other intolerance. In Dublin there have been 15 Protestant Lord Mayors since 1850. In Limerick there have been 13 Protestant Mayors since 1841, and since they got power to elect a Sheriff four Protestant" Sheriffs have been elected in succession. In Waterford 12 Protestant Mayors since 1845, and in Galway the Chairmen of the to\vn Commissioners, of Harbor Board, and Board of (jinirdians are Protestants.'” ' This is valuable information, coming as it does from a Protestant who has lived 40 years in Ireland. It makes a striking contrast to the Ulster towns, where not a single Catholic is employed in any public position or elected on a public body. It i proves that Catholics elect the man > they think" tjid ‘best 1 without regard to 1 religion! In a' leetpre deliyprqd by profussor j Kavanagh in Dublip hi J mb yS,r a good deal of

0 ..„ upon the subject. The Catholics of Carlow number 884 per 1000 of the population, the Established Church 100 per 1000, Methodists 3 per 1000, Presbyterians 2 per 1000, all other denominations 1 per 1000. Now in Carlow, where about 00 per cent of the population belong to the Catholic Church, there is scarcely a single Catholic in any public position. The Lieutenant of the county, sub-Lieutenant, the High (Sheriff, sub-Sheriff, Grand Jury, and every public officer, down to Warders in the gaol and in the workhouse, are all Protestants. It may bo asked How can this be whore 0(5 per cent of the people are Catholics I Simply enough. The Government appoints the High Sheriff, and he and his sub-Sherilf arrange the Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury arrange all the rest. The County Grand Jury in Ireland does the work which our County Councils, .Road Boards, &c., in New Zealand do. It practically controls everything. Now that explains the groat objection which Irish Protestants have to Home Rule; they believe they would not have

everything their own way if Ireland had a Parliament of its own, and no doubt they would not have as much of it as they have now. They are not afraid of religious persecution, but they are afraid of having to share the loaves and fishes with Catholics, and hence their objection. —Yours, &c., Ratkealensis. Christchurch, July 16, 1892.