THE IRISH QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2431, 29 November 1892, Page 3

THE IRISH QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —You were good enough to puba letter of mine on the Irish Question in the Leader of July 28th, in which I gave some few quotations from a pamphlet written by Mr Edmund Harvey, of Grange Co., Waterford, Ireland. In some unaccountable way I have misquoted my author, for I have made him to say that the municipal franchise in England was based on a £lO valuation, but strangely enough I failed to notice the error at the time. The Temuka Leader has a wide circulation, for by the last mail I received a post-card from Mr Harvey directing attention to the error in question, and asldng me to have it corrected. On referring to his pamphlet I find that what he does say is this municipal franchise is a household one, not limited to either sex, in Ireland it varies greatly, being in most towns outside Dublin restricted to male occupants of houses valued at not less than from £4 to £lO for rating purposes, equal to a rental of £lO to £2O in Ireland, or, say, £ls to £3O in Great Britain. Owing to this grept difference in the franchise British towns have, relatively in population, about four times as many voters for municipal purposes as Irish towns.” Your readers will at once see that the error is considerable and ought to be corrected. Mr Harvey’s statistics are so interesting that with your permission 1 will give one other short extract from his admirable little pamphlet : “ The municipal population of Dublin in 1881 was 249,486; the number of municipal electors was, in 1890, 8,316, while in Bristol, with a population of 206,834, the number of municipal electors was 26,569.” These figures are very eloquent in their appeal for Irish autonomy.—l am, &c., Rathkealensis.