THE DISCOVERY OF IRELAND.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 263, 24 March 1898, Page 4

THE DISCOVERY OF IRELAND.

Ireland is, and has been for centuries, a land of contrasts. Incongruities abound in our institutions, as inconsequences do in our speech, aud strangers have told us so ofttn that such things arc products of our nature that we, 'lisping .their language, have repeated their words until we half believed them true ; closing our eyes to the fact that what is absurd in our customs is caused by our having but half assimilated the manners of the alien people who dominated us; and that what is ridiculous in our speech comes from our clumsy use of the idiom which has supplanted our mother tongue. In truth, neither misgovernment nor mispronunciation are indigenous to Celtic soil. Perhaps poverty and misfortune might have been as unknowu in Ireland had the Saxon Lot planted his foot in the land, as Irish bulls would have been if we had retained our language, but speculations en the uuhappened past are idle ; it is long since the Saxon came, and it has long been clear that he came to stay. Whew he swept the country as a conqueror, none cculd blame us for resisting him ; while he remained an oppressor none could expect us to do other than hate and thwart him. But now, when our foreign governor seems disposed to change his role, and inclined to attempt our subjugation by kiuduess, refusal of his proffered aid may seem mere perverse spite, and one can imagine the whole English Press chorusing forth cries to gods and men to witness that wc are the most impossible people on the face of the earth if we reject the penauce3 found fcr us. . . .

Ytars of storm and stress, of famine and cruel partings, have torn from us much of the poetry, the gaiety, aud the old-time simplicity which once were ouis. The woodman has not spared our forests, the bailiff has destroyed our homes, but Ireland is still a land of restful peace and of beauty. If the last of our traditions must vanish : if the fairy ring is to be trodden under foot of the hurrying crowd, can it r,ot be for some worthy end ? The play-ground of Europe Ireland can Dever be. The storm-vexed Atlantic which lashes our shore, the rain clouds which roll down our mountain sides, save us from that ; but as long as we have the good sense and the good taste to remain as wc arc, our country shall always be a pleasureground of those whi.se pleasure is worth ministering to. Cheap fares, vulgar pastimes, good cooking evcu, will not draw a thousand more tourists in the year to our island ; and it would be well for them if hotel-keepers and development associations realised this fact. Dublin is a charming city, but the tripper who delights in restaurants and music-halls prefers Brus els, and it would be as unavailing for the dwellers by the Anna Liffy to attempt to outrival the Belgian capital, as it would be for Kingstown to vie with Dieppe, or Bray with Eastbourne. On the o her hand, if we preserve what wc have, neither restoring nor improving, but keeping fast hold of it, we may hope for an influx of strangers who, while adding to our scanty hoards of gold, will brintj us treasure as welcome in honest friendship.—To-morro.v.