DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 4 August 1913, Page 2

DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

tTo the Editor.) Sir, —With your kind permission, 1, on behalf of the Celtic Society, would like to make, an appeal to every Irishman in |Xew Zealand to donate his little mite towards relieving the shocking distress at present existing in Conncmara, and brought to light through the able pen of Sir Roger Casement. \i hose life has been largely spent in trying to relieve from active oppression distant and strange communities, but none so forsaken nor oppressed than his own countrymen. In response to an appeal by this distinguished son of Ireland, the "Irish Independent 5 ' opened a fund; which on June 1:1 last reached t'l,46fi. and my society is most anxious to make cverv effort to help to sweil the total. The following extracts from Sir Roger Casement's letter are sufficient warrant for my society's appeal: — "Thp most miserably-situated rural communities that any civilised country to-day holds ... 1 have nowhere seen even in the primitive regions a. population housed as many of these people are, or battling for existence with a soil so incapable in itself of supporting human life. . This i-. the congested district of Ireland. . . . It might be said that a considerable area inhabited by many thousands of people lives on the verge of chronic famine, and that many householders, penned in animal shelters, dwell in dread of recurrent sick-ne--s. ... It is quite clear to mc that a special and quite exceptional treatment must be attempted if this district is no! to remain a blot on our humanity. As a matter of fact., thp individual Irish peasant has proved himself one rvf the most expert land reclaimers in the world, as the tiny patches of soil upon which these people subsist, in a wilderness of rock that, as one of theni said, 'the sea forgot to cover." would alone attest. ... At, the National School of Carraroc, when I visited it a few days ago, there were IGO infants on the rolls, little boys and girls alike clad, or halfclad, in homespun skirts. Many absent because they bad no clothes. Father Ke.aly said that if they could be given a meal a day (to cost about a penny a head I if would so far to brighten (he long school hours and to bring hack happy litt'c faces to the hungry homes

hoiippptin ppttipoat* and kits par, frrow like mairie from parental dis-c-Jirclini? when fnod in "MeM."

Irishmen of New Znnlr*id. rally round the Ohio Society arid let us ho the mrnns (if jrivin.tr fbe-.e frish-sppakinir people one tiny mpnl ? day fur a Innp (imp to come. In thi= WPii 111>.v community I iim sure of n-iflimr willing helpers. Help us to relieve this unmerited poverty home with a c-heerfiiln"~? nnd crapp nf resignation that not. eoMly parnlieled p]?pwripre. CfTitrihctioriF. rienn". shjllincs nr poiuirts. '.vill be prstefnlly i-poeived by rrm and apknntrlpflcrrr! (lirorj?h th" Pres?. ! Trupcinn; to rppeivp a hpnriy response, and thanking yon. sir, in antipipation. I am. etc.. A. J. WOODLEY, Hon. Sec Celtic Society. His Majesty's Arcade. , AiKklaiiia^AiigusfcJsttfaMS.