HOME RULE MOVEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8332, 15 January 1907, Page 5

HOME RULE MOVEMENT.

MR DEVLIN'S VISIT TO MASTERTON.

ADDRESS AT THE TOWN HALL.

Mr Joseph Devlin, member for Belfast West, who is conducting a .campaign through New Zealand in connection with the Home Rule movement, arrived in Masterton yesterday from Wellington, accompanied by Mr Martin Kennedy. Mr Devlin was met at the Railway Station by the Mayor (Mr J. A. Renall), Rev. Dean McKenna and the members of the Reception Committee. Mr Devlin was driven to the Presbytery after being introduced to the various members of the Committee. Arriving at the Presbytery, the visitor was heartily welcomed, and the toast of his health and the success of the campaign was enthusiastically honoured. The Sisters at S. Bride's Convent had green streamers flying from the building, and welcomed the visitor by waving to him as his carriage passed. In the evening Mr Devlin delivered an address in the Town Hall. The Hall was filled with an enthusiastic audience. The Mayor presided. Those having seats on the stage were —Rev. Dean McKenna, Messrs A. W. Hogg, M.H.R., B. J. Dolan, H. O'Leary, J. Prendeville, M. Kelliher, M. C. O'Connell, J. Yarr, 0. Pragnell, J. C. McKillop, G. W. Dellar, H. McManaway and P. Molloy. The Mayor briefly introduced the speaker. He read telegrams from Messrs R. B. Ross, M.H.R., and J. C. Cooper, apologising for their absence. Mr Devlin, on rising, was greeted with prolonged applause. He delivered a powerful address, occupying nearly two hours. His address was listened to with great interest and punctuated with frequent' applause. Mr Devlin said that his first duty was to express his warm obligations to the Mayor for his kindness, first of all in welcoming him at the Railway Station, and, secondly, for his public spirit and courage in taking the chair at the meeting. In expressing gratitude to the Mayor for his kindness, he could assure him that he was merely following in the footsteps of the civic dignitaries in every town at which he had delivered addresses. After being about five weeks in New Zealand he was able to state that not only had the Mayors occupied the chair, but all the public men had vied with each other to welcome him. He was proud to say that the people had gathered to hear him in large numbers in the halls of every town through which he had passed, and had shown warm sympathy with the cause. He was not at all surprised that in a great country like New Zealand, where „not only self-go-vernment, but a Democratic Government, existed, large crowds should flock to give a warm reception to the Irish Envoys, who came to plead the cause of liberty. He represented the greatest Democratic Party in any constitution. During the last quarter of a century, mainly through the efforts of the Irish Nationalist Party ; in the British Parliament, great social reforms had been carried out in England, which had contributed largely to the welfare of the great body of Democrats ia England. They had been instrumental in placing on the Statute Book legislation that would improve the homes of workmen, raise their wages, shorten their hours, brighten their \ lives, and make sweeter the environments ' in which they lived, and the Irish Parliamentary Party, feeling that it was their duty to advance human comfort, succeeded in placing on the Statute Book, by their effective eloquence and consistent effort in the cause of democracy, such measures as the Workmen's Compensation Act, the eight hours day for miners, shortening the hours of railway servants, and halfkoliday to women textile workers of Great Britain. Every one of those measures was due to the zeal, public spirit, democratic devotion, and splendid eloquence of Irishmen . sent to the Imperial Parliament. (Applause) . He came to this democratic country, from a democratic party, and he was sure those present would give impartial consideration to the arguments he would adduce in favour of self-government for Ireland. In New Zealand the people enjoyed the blessings of a free Constitution, and were only bound by the laws they themselves made. They were subject only to the authority which they created for themselves. They had here in its highest and most ideal form a system of self-government which his party were so anxious to secure for Ireland. (Applause). They asked for their country the same rights that were enjoyed in New Zealand—they asked for Ireland for the Irish as it was New Zealand for the New Zealanders. They asked for the right' to advance their own fortunes,to build up their own destinies, to develop their own resources, to inspire their own industrial power, to cultivate their own intellects, and, generally, for the opportunity which would make for a more ordered system of government for the peace and contentment of their people. In a speech recently delivered to ,his constituents in Scotland, the Prime Minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Ban-nerman) laid down the constitutional dictum, "Good government was no* substitute for self-government." If you have your own government, said Mr Devlin, and it became corrupt, you can change it, but if you give your government into the hands of others and it becomes defective, you cannot change it. How irresistible becomes the claim of Ireland, when they ask that self-government be substituted not for good government but for a bad government. Ireland once had a Parliament of her own. It was by no means an ideal Constitution. It was a Protestant Parliament, a privileged Parliament, elected on a restricted franchise —undemocratic because when a member was elected he remained a member for life. It had one great saving quality —it was an Irish Parliament, responsible to Ireland. (Applause). Though surrounded by that democratic limitation this Parliament during the eighteen years of its free control, was responsible for progress along the lines of industrial, agricultural, economic and artistic advance. Industries sprang up, lands that had long lain dormant once more became fruitful, the little towns and villages got, new life

and Dublin became one of the most ! charming and artistic capitals in Europe. That Parliament was destroyed and iri its place was put a policy of corruption and fraud. Constitutional liberties disappeared, and what had been the consequence of government from London? They could travel from Donegal in the north to Cork in the south, and see empty land and idle factories standing as silent monuments of the destruction of Ireland's industrial power and resources. Sixty or seventy years ago there were bright, smiling, happy, prosperous villages, many of which had disappeared. The land changed into cattle ranches or sheep walks, and fifteen villages had disappeared in fifty years. Where had the people gone? To that great Republic, America, three thousand miles away, where the Irish intellect, industry, civic spirit, and devotion to recognised, inspired institutions was given free play. (Applause). Before the effects of English misrule became apparent the population of Ireland was 8,500,000 —happy, prosperous, and free —but now it was, only 4,500,000. There was no more powerful impeachment to a government than was to be found in the decimation of the population. It was recorded in the Blue Books that in one year alone 1,500,000 of the people were lost through extermination—hunger and pestilence. It had been said that this was a visitation of Providence, but in that year when strong men were dying of hunger on the roadsides, and women were suffering . from deadly disease brought on by hunger and want, and little children cried for bread, there, were I exported to England one million head of cattle, the same quantity of sheep, one million barrels of corn, also two million bags of wheat and flour, and the price of that food was sent back to Ireland to keep going the worst system of Irish landlordism that ever cursed any country. (Applause). The late Mr Gladstone, the greatest statesman of the last half-century—-(applause) —had' given it as his opinion that there was no transaction that darkened the pages of history more than that which took away from Ireland its own Parliament. Some might say that such a lurid picture of a national tragedy should be buried in the past, but no one would be more delighted than he if the conditions of Ireland had .so improved as to make them no longer remember i the incidents that inspired horror not only in every Irish heart, but every human and Christian nature. But, unfortunately, the misrule still went on, and 40,000 a year were carried away to the United States of America, and it was recorded that of them 95 per cent, varied from twelve to forty-five years of age. They were the young, the powerful, healthy, the brain and brawn, of Ireland, that left her shores every year. The wish of the party was to build up a great, powerful, and mighty Ireland. He referred to the. proportion of people in workhouses, and to , the poverty existing, and furnished, figures to show the acuteness of the social conditions. He also said that lunacy, cancer, and consumption were on the increase in Ireland, to an extent not only appalling to her own people, but alarming to the highest medical authorities in England, who declared that the consumption and cancer were due to poor clothing, bad food, and wretched houses, and that the lunacy was the consequence of the mental gloom 1 that was created by the surroundings of the people. As to taxation, Ireland was paying £2,000,000 a year as her contribution to the Imperial exchequer when the population was nine millions, and now, when the population was only half what it was, they had to pay £10,000,000. A financial commission, consisting of twelve Englishmen, appointed to report on the taxation of Irelannd, had found that since the Act of Union in 1800 Ireland had paid £2,500,000 more than her share of taxation. That money was not refunded, but instead Ireland was subjected to more taxation to pay the cost of the -Boer War. The English Government had spent 240 millions on the war in South Africa and the only benefit that was derived, as far as he could see, was the establishment of Chinese labour on the Rarid. (Prolonged applause). This was how the money was spent, and when the Irish politicians asked for money "to give better homes and contentment to the Irish people, they were told that there was no money. In regard to the .methods by which Ireland was governed, Lord Dunraven had described it as a bureaucratic system, subject only to, fa department in London, and Mr Joseph Chamberlain had said that he did not believe in a system founded on the bayonets of 30,000 soldiers, and described it as ' a government, as completely centralised and bureaucratic as that which prevailed under Eastern rule. The speaker said that he had discovei-ed that three objections were raised by some people to Ireland being selfgoverned, one being that it would | mean dismemberment of the Empire, but he asked what had been the result so far as the experience of other parts of the Empire was concerned, and replied that the effect of selfgovernment had been to make the people more loyal. The same result would come fronVthe cession of Home Rule to Ireland. Others said they were afraid it would mean Rome rule in Ireland, but such was merely an imaginary fantasy of disordered , brains that had ' sprung from fomenters of sectarian strife. There was not a single instance where ths people of Ireland had ever manifested a spirit of religious persecution towards those who differed from them. (Applause). In further proof of his position, Mr Devlin pointed to a number of constituencies in Ireland, in which the great majority were Catholics —in some cases 95 per cent. —and' which returned Protestants to the English Parliament. They returned men who differed from them in creed simply, because it was not a fight for the ascendency of a class, but for human liberty. The Irish Protestants in the North of Ireland were beginning to realise that their best interests would be served by Home Rule, and they were joining with the Catholics and all religious differences were being sunk. A spirit of brotherhood had sprung up between Protestants and Catholics. He mentioned that he was a Catholic, and had been the first of that denomination in twenty-five years, and the second in a century, to be returned to represent the Protestant artisans of the great manufacturing centre

lof Belfast. (Applause). He hoped I that when the next elections came around it would not be Ulster, Connaught, and Cork fighting for Home Rule, but all Ireland forcibly fighting as one nation and knocking at the door of the British Parliament demanding Home Rule. Some raised the objection that Irishmen could not. govern themselves, but he asked them to consider the important part taken in civic matters throughout the world by Irishmen, and asked if that was not a complete answer. Granted that the Irishmen were as bad as they were painted, they could not make a worse job of the government of Ireland than had been made by English rule. Mr Devlin concluded with an eloquent peroration and said he felt sure that when next an Irish envoy came to Australasia, it .would be to tell the people of the blessings that had come from self-government in Ireland. (Loud applause). Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.R., moved—"That this meeting extends a hearty welcome to Mr Devlin as envoy of the Irish National Party, and assures him that the people of Masterton and the surrounding district cordially sympathise with the endeavours of the Parliamentary party, with which he is associated to secure for Ireland the full powers and privileges of self-government." The mover spoke in support of the motion. Mr B. J. Dplan seconded the motion, which was carried Without a dissenting voice. On the motion of Mr 0. Pragnell, seconded by Mr G. W. Dellar, a vote of thanks to Mr Devlin for his address was carried unanimously. Mr Devlin again thanked the Mayor for his kindness, also the Rev. Dean McKenna, and other members of the clergy for their hospitality. On his motion, a vote of thanks was accorded, to the Mayor. The meeting was brought to a conclusion by the giving of three cheers for Mr Devlin. Prior to the meeting the Mastertos Municipal Brass Band rendered a number of selections in front of the hall.