Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 March 1902, Page 9

Irish News.

ANTRIM.— Successful Bazaar. The Good Shepherd bazaar (writes a Belfast correspondent) has resulted in the receipt of over £7478 for the funds of the convent which is to benefit by the enterprise. It is often a matter of marvel that in so poor a country as Ireland funds for religious and charitable purposes can be so easily raised and in such vast amount. Terrible Catastrophe. One of the most terrible accidents in the annals of the city of Belfast occurred on Monday morning, January 20, on the premises of the Smithfield Flax Spinning Company, the front of which takes up the greater portion of one side of Smithfield market, while the main portion of the building, where the calamity occurred, extends rearward for some distance towards North street. The building is a four-storey one, the ground floor and third floor being a preparing room, the third a spinning room, and the topmost of all as a reeling room. The accident occurred about half-past nine o'clock, when, it is to be presumed, most of the hands were busily engaged in their daily occupations. At that hour, without any warning to the unfortunate people inside, at least 20 feet of the outside wall gave way from top to bottom, and fell with a tremendous crash on to the smaller outbuilding, the roof of which was completely demolished, The floors, heavy in themselves, for they are all made of a composition of brick and concrete, supported by iron beams, were still further burdened by an immense mass of machinery, and deprived of their outside support ; the entire three fell almost simultaneously with the wall, making a complete gap in the centre of the building and depositing hundreds of tons of bricks, concrete, machinery, and iron beams on to the ground floor. Then commenced a scene almost impossible to describe. The thickly populated neighborhood, aroused by the crash, turned out en masse, and soon the square was filled with weeping mothers and anxious fathers whose children were working in the ruined building. Many were there, too, who came from curiosity, for the news was soon spread abroad, and from all the surrounding districts men and women could be seen running to the scene of disaster. It was at once realised that the accident was one of enormous magnitude, for the mill employs a large number of workpeople, and the fact that that portion of the building was well stocked with machinery, each of which, of necessity, would require at least two attendants, made it at once preemptory that relief work should be commenced at once. The fire brigade was, therefore, at once telephoned for, and three fire escapes and three ambulances were despatched to the scene. The men, aided by the employees of the firm, got to work with commendable promptness, and soon the ambulances were journeying backwards and forwards to the hospital with the injured, 10 victims being recovered in a very short space of time. The work of rescue revealed the sad fact that 13 persons had lost their lives, and that fully double that number had been seriously injured. CORK Death of a Solicitor. On January 18 the sad news was spread throughout the length and breadth of Duhallow that Mr. Henry Harte Barry, of Kanturk, one of the oldest and best-known of southern solicitors had passed away. Deceased had reached the ripe old age of 70 at the time of his death. Native Music. An interesting 1 competition is announced in connection with the coming Cork Exhibition. It has been

decided to offer three prizes of £50, £30, and £20 respectively, to bandmasters and other musicians for the best arrangement, suitable for bands, of a selection of native Irish melodies. DOWN.— The New Member. Mr. James Woods, who has been elected member of Parliament in place of Dr. Rentoul, is a farmer and also a solicitor. Mr. Woods, in the latter capacity, has figured constantly in the Land Courts as a farmer's advocate, and is well-known throughout Ulster as a sturdy advocate of the tenants' interests. Mr. Woods was elected at a meeting of the Ulster Farmers' and Laborers' Union at Saintfield. A great number of Protestant clergymen took part in the proceedings. One of them, the Rev. S. Dickson, the Pro. testant minister of Saintfield, being the chairman. Another minister, the Rev. Mr. Carse, declared that the farmers and laborers of the constituency did not require the opinion either of Mr. Wyndham or the ' News Letter ' — the Orange organ of Belfast — nor yet of the ' Northern Whig.' Mr. Woods, in his speech, declared himself a Unionist and a Presbyterian, but at the same time an advocate of toleration for all creeds in Ireland. DUBLIN.— Death of a Litterateur The death took place in Dublin of Mr. John McCall, on January 18, in the 81st year of his life. The deceased, who was a native of Clonmore, County Carlow, settled in Dublin about the year 1843. He was a distinguished archaeologist and literatteur, though from his quiet and unassuming character one who had not become acquainted with the fact would hardly have thought so. He was quite a prolific writer, and was the author of a number of standard works, historical and others. So far back as the year 1840 he contributed stories and sketchess of his native place to the ' Dublin Journal.' He also contributed to the columns of the ' Argus,' the ' Irish National Guard,' the ' Catholic Advocate,' and the Belfast ' People's Journal ' of that distant period. The Very Rev. Canon O'Hanlon received most valuable assistance from him in the compilation of his ' Lives of Irish Saints.' Amongst his published works were a history of Clonmore, where he was born ; ' The Life of James Clarence Mangan,' ' The Life of John Martin,' and lives of Hughes, L'Estrange, and others. He was also for many long years the editor of ' Old Moore's Almanac,' the issue for the present year having been prepared by him, and also editor of ' Furdon's Ladies' and Farmers' Almanac,' and not the least interesting of his numerous works was his ' History of Irish Almanacs,' in two volumes. A Strange Sight. In a quiet back street of Dublin is the Church of St. Michan's, and in its vaults one sees perhaps one of the strangest sights in the. country. There lie the bodies of people buried centuries ago, which, owing to some curious preservative properties of the air or soil of that particular place, never decay. Their skins ' tan ' into a flexible chamois-like leather. The limbs can be moved about with ease, the finger nails are perfect, and in some cases the features are fairly distinct. This is especially the case with the body of a female infant, which was buried in 1688. There is in another vault another body, said to be that of a Crusader, and in another one said to be that of a brother of King O'Toole. Improving the Port. The? Dublin Port and Docks Board has finally decided to promote a new Bill in Parliament whereby £650,000 would be spent on improving the Port of Dublin. GALWAY.— The New Member. In the House of Commons immediately after the opening of the ses-

sion, Earl Percy asked the First Lord of the Treasury whether application had been made for a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Arthur Lynch, member for Galway. Mr. Balfour A warrant for his arrest has been issued under the statute of Queen Anne, and he will be arrested if he lands in this country. Earl Percy — May 1 ask my right hon. friend whether, following the precedents in such matters, the Government intend to move that Mr. Lynch be summoned to appear at the Bar of the House ? No answer was given. Works of Charity. The late Right Rev. Monsignor Madden was Vicar-General of the diocese of Clonfert, and a Domestic Prelate of his Holiness Leo XIII. Though he received a large fortune under the will of his brother, he devoted almost the whole of it to charity, and died poor. In addition to the personal estate, the will devised) to him the Madden family estate of Carton, near Longhrea, in trust for the priesthood ; but as the mansion was unsuitable, the foundation was removed to Esker College, purchased for the purpose, and finally to Ballinasloe, with a view to being near the Bishop's seat. Monsignor Madden had several relatives in Australia, including Representative Glynn and Doctors Eugene and Robert Glynn, whose maternal grandmother was a Madden by birth. GENERAL. Government Policy. Mr. Wyndham, Secretary for Ireland, speaking at Dover recently, said that it was their duty to protect minorities, and to bring to justice law-breakers. He would not listen on that point to any arguments based on mere expediency, but he admitted the urgency of legislation to rectify the deplorable conditions of land tenure in Ireland. He declared that Home Rule and an independent Parliament were impossibilities. Ireland was bound to Great Britain by ties even closer than those between the colonies and the Motherland. Irish Linen. The Germans (says the Dublin ' Freeman's Journal ') have met their Jena in one field of Irish manufacture, we are happy to say. Having devoted years of enterprise under a high protective tariff to the purpose of beating Irish linen, they have given up in despair. They reluctantly confess, according to the Berlin correspondent of the ' Daily News,' that the Reichstag must provide them with the Irish climate if they are to compete successfully with the best products of the Belfast looms. In a petition to the Reichstag on the subject of the tariff, the under-linen manufacturers state, with regard to the various fruitless attempts made in Germany to produce linen equal in quality to Irish linen, that in former years the opinion was held that the better quality of the Belfast linen was due to the superior methods employed in the manufacture. Now, however, it is known to be the fact that the quality is to a considerable degree attributed to the peculiarity of the Irish climate. The comparative warmth and dampness of the air and the fogs form the principal factors in the bleaching process, which cannot be made up for in any way in Germany. The German linen mills have established this fact by very expensive and difficult experiments. One firm brought over about 20 Irishmen, hoping to produce a fabric similar to the Irish linen, but all to no purpose, and attempts to make up for the want of natural warmth and fog by a chemical process similarly failed. The Municipal Elections. The Municipal elections, which came off in January, were contested mainly this year on political grounds, with the result that the Nationalists lost in many cases through having too many candidates in the field, and holding their oppo-

nents too cheaply. One very satisfactory result in Dublin was tho success of Alderman Farrcll, who was strenuously opposed by the publicans on no better ground than that he was a temperance man. Mr, Dillon, who was a voter in the Ward, took an active part in Alderman Farrell's interest, and as a result tho Alderman was again returned. In the Mansion House Ward, where another temperance Nationalist was returned despite tho opposition of the Tories, the Labor Party, and the publicans combined With Mr. Tallon — who bits himself for this Ward— to do their best against the Nationalist simply because the Nationalist was a temperance advocate. In Cork, the Lord Mayor was opposed on the ground of his political shortcomings, but his energies on behalf of the Cork Inhibition won the day for him. An Indictment. Speaking at a largely-attended meeting of Nationalists held recently in Glasgow, Mr. Davitt showed how disastrous the ' Union ' has been to Ireland. When the Act of Union was passed, said Mr. Davitt, Ireland had one-half the population of Great Britain, three and a quarter times that of Scotland, ten times that of Wales, and five times that of London. To-day our population is about one-eighth of that of Great Britain, sixteen thousand less than Scotland, and two and a half times that of Wales, and about two millions less than that of Greater London. Going beyond the bounds of these islands, we find a similar progress m population in all the .small nations of Europe, without a single exception. Holland, Belciuni,' Vorway Sweden, SwitzerlaTid. Denmark Bavaria, Portugal, Greece, h ;i \e added an average of seventy or eighty per cent to their respective populations during the List fifty years. In fact while these smail States ha\e doubled their people under the guardian eai<> of Yational liberty, Ireland, under the e\ il influence of British Imperialism, ] la s lost a hundred per cent of hei' population. In this respect sin- stands in a unique position among civilised lands ; there being, m fact, no parallel in the history of Christian nations for the steady and deadly drain of people aw.n from a count ry blessed by nature wit h resources capable of sustaining three times tho present number of inhabitants of Belgium. This, howe\er. is only half the indictment. As a duect result of this fatal weakening of our population both the biith-rate and the marriage-rate of Ireland are now the lowest of any country in Europe. There is likewise an alarming increase of insanity among the diminishing numbers , a fact also due to the emigration of the more virile of the people, le.i\ing the physically impoverished beyond to carry on the racial functions of de\ elopment . As a further comment upon all this decay and retrogress, on. a combined national and local taxation. which amounted to a total of about £2,000.000 a year under ,\n Irish Parliament, with a population equal to that of to-da\ , is now . as a result of a hundred \ ( \u s of Imperialism, over £12,000000 annually, .in increase of 000 per cent The total annual wealth produced by Irish industry on Trish land averages about £40,000,000 This will 'be the gross value of a > ear's produt c of all the lands of Ireland Out of this sum no less than £0,000,000 has to go in rent to landlordism — that is, almost one-fourth of tho whole. Adding the rent to the taxes, it will be seen that fully fifty per cent, of the earnings of Trish agricultural industiy is thus taken by the two exploiting agencies of Imperialism, English rule and Irish landlordism. The non-agricultural industries of Ireland scarcely count. England's rule has crushed them out also ; while on the top of all this there is the fact that we have far

more pauperism in the country today than there was thirty years ago, when Ireland had two millions more of people.