HOME RULE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16192, 19 March 1913, Page 8

HOME RULE.

Sm Joseph Wabd is visiting the Mother Country freed from all the restraints of office and he is using his liberty, quite characteristically, in extending the hand of friendship to men who are righting for political liberty. Kis speech at a gathering of the Irish Nationalists in London recently was a notable one and it was made at an opportune moment. The battle for Irish Home Rule is partially won, but much still has to be done before a Parliament can sit in Dublin. The Unionist extremists have shown their intention to spare n-> effort to arouse hostility to the Home Rule Bill by fostering an impression that it is a cloak for religious bigotry and unpatriotic scheming, and the support of a colonial statesman who has won the confidence of the British public is bound to bo of real assistance to the Nationalists at the present juncture. In his privatecapacity Sir Joseph has represented accurately the opinion of tho vast majority of the New Zealand people, who know of their own experience how intimate is the relation between true lovalty and free institutions and who can realise what Ireland has suffered during generations of political subjection.