HOME RULE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 2

HOME RULE.

I TO THK EDITOR. : Sill, —We. here in New Zealand arc nut poing to bo allowed to bo neutral in this Home Rule question. It is going .to be . forced upon us whether we will or not. There are always two sides to a question ; I will givu you my idea upon Home Rule. Ist. Wo hear a great deal about the Irish. 1 Nation. Now, I am not well versed in ; Irish history, lint, as far as that knowledge goes, I have never heard of an Irish King; true, [ have often heard of Kings of CJoiinaught, Ulster, and Minister ; and if I am right in this, then Ireland novel' was a nation? A nation is a country governed by one supreme head, not a people cut up and split into a lot of clans, each ruled by its ov/n putty chief. Now they may claim to be a nation, at least, much more so than in past history. 2nd. We hear Home ituleis C'.mie out strong upon the past cruelties and wrongs which England did upon the Irish long, long ago. Now, those past cruelties, depicted in tragic and heroic langinge, and no doubt truthful have nothing whatever to do with the Home K'.ile question. What have we of the present age gut t i do with what was done in a, past age? Fn those by-gone times it was the spirit of tlm age to be cruel. At the time Strongbow went over to [relund and committed cruelties upon them ho was no more cruel upon them than they, the Ir'sh, wero'upon their own selves, perhaps, not so much so. At that time what were they, themselves ? Why, they were split up into clans and fighting and murdering one another like wild beasts; in those times, 700 years ago, Irish and .English alike in their relation of one to another were moic like wild beasts than human beings. The whole of mankind were so : if all mankind in those times were devils, what nonsense to pxpeet the English to be siiiuts. Mr Editor, SOO years ago, the Northmen ea-ne down to France and carried firo and sword through Normandy and conquered it, 700 hundred years ago the Normans came over to England and siczed upon the S.ixons' lands, and almost made slaves of them ; (iOO years ago the English went over and conquered Ireland. These three conquests were three destined doings in the world's de-tiny. What foolery it would be for the French and English to harangue upon the cruelties of the Northmen and Normans ; equally foolish is it for the liish ti declaim upon th'i cruellies of the English. Mr Editor, we .Scotch are wiser ; you don't hear if us getting mad upon the massacre of (ilencoe, or of our beautilul and uiif >rl.'iii:iLu Mary in a brisu and treacherous way losing her life, it would be criminal in us to be treasuring and hugging hatred for those bygone crimes. If you were to be putting two wild beasts, say a lion and a tigor intna cage, yon would not expect them, like two sweethearts behind a door, to begin with endearing onn another —true they would hug one another, but it would be a hug of hate which would only end in the death of one or both. Ido not say Orangemen and Fenians are wild beasts, hut 1 say at the bottom of them there is an antagonism of polities which, if there wnn no third strong controlling power to keep them in order, would at once break out and there would be war to the death. There is no glossing over the fact, but true it is, that the conquering party, no matter which, would make slaves of the other, (rive Ireland Home Rule and the saying of the Kilkenny cats would become true. Mr Editor, it makes my teeth water when I read about these Home Rule funds. 0, dear me ! I wish I had been one of their treasurers or secretaries ! Twenty thousand at least would have stuck to my fingers, the money seemed to be np one's, it seemed fair plunder; why should 1 as woll as the others not have a go in? At this confession I think I hear your grand old " Patriot " of Hamilton say: Ah! I always knew " Harapipi " to be an old rascal and rogue ; but not so fast my grand old "Patriot;" are you your-elf a consistent old patriot? What about the unearned increment on that two tons of sugar you had in stock when tho late vise in sugar took place ? You did nothing to earn the increment which was caused by the rise. Did you give this increment to your customers? According to your own argument being unearned by you you had no claim to it. Oh ! you will say, this is quite a different thing ! Yes, it is nuit.-e different; it is a great difference applying a principle when that principle is to take money front others to 1 yon, it is quite different when the K-.ime i principle is to be applied to extract money from you for others.—Yours truly. Hahahpi. Harapipi, August 2nd, ISSU.