HOME RULE

Nelson Evening Mail, 21 July 1916, Page 5

HOME RULE

(Australian and K.Z. 'pable Association.) }. ::•', : Jil»! As"quitb will' introduce the Home Rule-Bill next week. : ( A remarkable manifesto beasTing on jthe-economic conditions in Ireland was v ; recently issued by the Irish Nationalist :'Parliamentary Party as a reply 'to 'Sinni Feinfsmi. It said:.."Two~t3iircfa of tho: errtjre land of .the country has pessad in-' to. tlie ihands of the people. The re'-; i tmainiihg third. is in process of gradual : rta'ansfer, and the soil of Ireland is .iow' r * more securely vested in the [people of j Iceland than at any period of our 'yonntry's history.; Tens of thousands of eokr tages have heew 'built all over: Ireland,; iiiwhieb, at a moderate rent and with, a.* portion of land, the Irish, labourers nave been ti'ansformed froni the worst housed, worst clothed, and worst fed'class: in Europe inijo the <besfc •housed,.".'the mosti... comfortable, and the most.,independent' body of labourers ira tho world!.:' Ini tie congested districts grass ranches have been acquired and divided up into' aca--nomic holdings.for the people. .Stated, roomy, and healthy houses have taken ( the place of the miserable cabins, and there has grown 1 up :in •some, of the most poverty-stricken districts in the North - West, AVesfe, and South, of. Ireland' ii. newIreland of happy and prosperous homes.-. In so fair as the'loeal government' of Tre- .' land'.is concerned, it has been wxendied from the latndtords and is -now in entire . possession of the people, with . chairmen and members freely chosen -by .the people, themselves. . . Hard as aire w : v«ix. ditions of many of the workmen of Xre T . land in the cities, unhealthy--' as ._■ still.; are many of their grants, and' Acts liave. 'begun" the 'great, work of'.prb.- : viidiiig healthy nomes for iib,e; toilers. ■ Tn" every " effort to" "put sweating, the abuse of. the truck. sy#ehi/ : the. efficient administration of .itheiFac-', tory Acts', the 'safeguarding' of thought!, of combination, and the protection o£-the interests of the trade nnions, the Irisli National Party have' beeni able" to extend to Ireland every benefit the popular rc.presentativcs of 'Great Ikitain have been able to obtain for their const'tuents. . . The tenants in.'' tho towns have achieved a charter far in excess of anything ever., extended 1 . to WW city or town in England. Witb England, Ireland has been_ enabled 'to share' to thf> full int tfte programme of social refprm. Old age pensions have 'brought. comfort and hope to tens of" thousands of old men and women who otherwise would have had an old age of poverty and despair." ■'."',