The Hawera Star MONDAY, MAY 25, 1925. IRELAND AS IT IS

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 May 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star

MONDAY, MAY 25, 1925. IRELAND AS IT IS

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock -n Hawera, Manaia. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Jlangatnki, Kaponga, Alton. Hurleyvillc, Pa tea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wbakamara, Ohanyai, Meremere, Fraser Hoad, an Ararata.

By no means without its shadows and its grave fears for the economic welfare of the country, a sketch contributed under the above title to the current number of The Round Table is nevertheless shot through —no literal reference to Ireland intended —with a cheery optimism. Having Avon its political freedom, Southern Ireland is finding that Ijlome Rule and Utopia are not synonymous terms, and that something more substantial than liberty is demanded by an overtaxed and hungry people. But it is held to be significant that economic issues ore coming so prominently to the front; hitherto the Irish mind has been too intent upon the fight for national autonomy to trouble much about material comforts. That is perhaps the glory of the Irish temperament. Self government on a diet of potatoes and but-ter-milk was preferable to luxurious ease coupled with a. feeling of political subservience. But now the Free State is firmly established, much of the old bitterness has gone from Irish politics, and the people are beginning to turn their attention to other things. “Let Ireland be free,” was the slogan of the past. “We must learn,” says the Irish writer in The Round Table, “that freedom of itself will not fill our mouths or our pockets —that when freedom is attained much remains to be done to make a country prosperous ” The fault found both with the present Government and with the Republican Opposition is that they are clinging too long to dead political issues. Having achieved the goal towards which his country has struggled for so long, the Irish politician is seemingly left a little dazed; it is contended that, instead of accepting his new freedom and setting to work, to use it for the welfare of the people, he is too liable to wander off into aimless discussions as to whether or. not ho really is free. And all the while agriculture is at its lowest ebb for thirty years, carrying companies are working at a loss, and wholesale houses arc without orders. Talking will not cure such ills as these, and Ihe call or the country is for a definite economic policy pushed forward xvitli the same vigour which defeated the Irregulars in 1922-23. Admittedly the Government’s position is not. an enviable one. The extra-legal activities of the Republicans have saddle Mr Gosgravc’s Administration with heavy additional expense; and in a desperate attempt to make the Budget balance tax after tax lias been added. Ireland is not a wealthy country, and it is only by building up her export trade, bv fostering what few in-

dustrics she hns, :nul by attending to tlie development of her tourist truffle that she can be brought through to prosperity. The Government has made a beginning by insisting upon the proper grading of eggs and butter, but it appears open to grave doubt if much can be accomplished without a substantial reduction in taxation to enable production at lower costs. A 1 present Danish butter is underselling the home product on the Dublin market. But, after all, every country has its dark days, and the outstanding feature Of the Irish situation is the return of pence and security We are told that the boundary question is barely mentioned by the people, that religious bigotry is practically nonexistent, that “the Irish tendency to si,de with the criminal against the policeman ’’ is on the wane, and that it is no longor considered an act of courage to be out after dark. Having conic so far, Ireland, is surely on the high road to happiness at last.