OUR IRISH LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 17, 25 April 1907, Page 27

OUR IRISH LETTER

* (Prom our own _ correspondent:) Dublin, March 1, 1907. A Valuable Find. There is a celebrated picture that must, by this time, have brought its owners ' a very large sum .of _ money, yet that brought its painter, a poor French, innloeeper, 'as I have read, but a few francs. I speak" of the picture we see copied everywhere, even on fancy boxes, the ' Angelus. ' I thought of the struggling art- ~" ist a short time ago when reading of the" purchase of an- aid violin by a wealthy Dublin musician for £1000. Who, I wondered, was the owner of that violin, and did he get even 5s for it ? Its value, as what is known to and coveted by connoisseurs as an ' Imperial Guiseppe Guarneri del Jesu,' 1735, was recognised by the owner of a small, somewhat shabby "second-hand ' shop in Aungier street (.the street in which Tom Moore was born),-* and it was the owner of this small shop who got the £1000. Such an occurrence sets onethinking about the poor man who sold the article in a shop of the class whee a big price is never given to the distressed men or women who offer their little treasures for sale, to buy, perhaps, a loaf of bread for a famishing" child. The daily papers tell of the ' find ' and' the sale. Let us hope that the owner saw the notice, was able to prove his share in the transaction and found the dealer who reaped the harvest somewhat miore generous than such dealers usually are ; or, failing this, let us hope the unlucky seller never heard 'of the lucky find. - - Imports of Ltive Stock. .An Irish M.P., Mr. Wm. Field, told us lately that in every hour of every day in the year 1906 thiexe "were imported into Great Britain from foreign shores 946 sheep, 161 cattle and 42 p-igs. There are 8,760 hours in a year, so that this means 10,065,240 animals for food imported to compete with home-reared stock. In face of such a statement,- iho.w are Irish farmers to make the raising of live stock pay,- especially now that numbers have, in- their natural anxiety to fix 1 themselves .on the land, consented to purchase at a price that was considered too hitrh twenty years ago— a price that is making the landlords who sold quickly absolutely crow with delight, well knowing that they have the cream of the joke, for were things to go on on the old system, bad as it was, they must have gone on lowering rents every few years, seeing the yearly increase of foreign competition) with . home produce ? How Government will settle the matter in years to come is -a- puzzle. An Inter-national Exhibition. There is to be an iiiiternaitfion&l exhibition 'opened by the King in Dublin in May, and the temporary buildings are now fairly well "advanced towards what will be a very pretty range of structures, close to the grounds . and buildings of ' the Royal Dublin Society whose annual horse show is now a world famed event. It is a good many years since there was an exhibition* on a 'large scale in the city, and such a yen- ' ture should be successful, but it is to be feared this will not be at all what might be expected owing to the action of the ever busy anti-National party; who unfortunately, . will not work in union with the people. The Nationalists, anxious for the prosperity of- our home products above all others, were anxious to have a purely Irish Exhibition ol.the manufactures and products of the country, which are quite varied and attractive enough to furnish an exceedingly interesting ■-aiidfi instructive exhibition', with the addition of what I may "call the tinsel of pretty" -foreign toys which furnish glitter and amusement, and really injure no staple trade, as they only supply the crowd who can but lay out a trifle, while xthe more, solid productions of ' home industry would deservedly "attract the attention of the business world. This • was v demonstrated by the Corjf Exhibition of five yea"s ago when, save the timsel, there was, little or- nothing foreign : Irish trade was benefited, and the promoters netted £7000 over and above all expenses. Now, the Dunlin -Unionistspersist in having an exhibition of their own, an international one, therdby working directly against the wishes

of the people at large, and so there is party feeling aroused, while it would have been really wiser for the Unionists -to meet the -views of those who desire a home show, for, putting other considerations aside, • Ireland- is' too far away from other - countries": to ■ at-'-tract valuable foreign exhibit's, "the cost and risk /of transit being, more than- could ever be recouped toy exhibitors -from a distance. Therefore the wide -world will not send much that -is worth looking at, so that : it was scarcely wise to 'offend the ''Nationalists,- even though 'b;y doing so. the_. Unionists succeed in -keeping any little dignities that may be conferred by the King at the operAng. It would seem that the anti-Na-tional party were determined to incense the Irish:- for the. committee 'gave the contract for .the buildings; to a London firm, who have brought over most of-iheir workmen from England at a time when our own artisans are sadly in need of employment. Moreover, they have given the principal cate ing also across theiChannel.*- Now, we should think it very strange if "some 1 large English,, city, about 'to open a great -exhibition -were to •' send over -here for 'plan's, ■ contractor,- plan*, and laborers. Such is the spirit., for ever working here ' to make English influence insupportable. _ , ' .." The -University Question. — .-' ■ This very --same spirit of grasp of power and-nioney ' ■ is keeping up the war on the Catholic 'University question which, on the one side, is simply and solely a question of £. s. d. ; religion, real religion, has nothing to .do with it. It is just that, so long as the cry could be;: kept up ' ycu have not a: University education,' all emolument- worth hav"ing, -were denied to Catholics in t'neir own country. The Protestants know well that the Catholics cannot and will not accept a Protestant or a godless - education: the exceptions to -this only prove the rule. So,_;while~ much' declamation goes >on about- the desire to welcome Catholic youth to T. C. D., in reality they are not wanted there, and those Catholics who passed through that University, were, as- a rule, secretly' but sedulously kept back- in the race for positions.