PRESS OPINIONS ON THE IRISH LAND BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRESS OPINIONS ON THE IRISH LAND BILL.

HARD TO PLEASE. Ii? Irish legislators and others are not satisfied, the English people will be forced to the conclusion that they have made up their minds to demand more than can be granted.—Sheffield Daily Telegraph. WILL IT BEING CONTENTMENT? The Bill strikes, at the root of the land trouble, and displays sympathy, courage, and caution. It promises to simplify what Mr. Gladstone complicated, but will it bring contentment to Ireland?— Courier. CERTAIN TO PASS. If they have made up their minds to pass the Bill the Government will succeed, but it is not so sure that the formal support given the measure hi the House of Commons will be reflected in the country. Daily Post, Birmingham. A PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. If Ireland accepts it as a final solution, the Government will have effected a peaceful revolution, the like of which no State has ever before attempted, at a comparatively small cost.—Western Morning News, Plymouth. CREATING A PRECEDENT. Under the present scheme the Irish labourers are merely taxed for the benefit of the farmer above them. When they are satisfied there will be plenty of claimants for State bounty on this side of the] Channel.—Daily Graphic. WHO WILL PROFIT? The whole scheme is essentially reactionary. The labourer will not be a whit better off, the tenant fanner may profit, the landlord certainly will, and the loss will fall again on the British taxpayer.— Daily Despatch ? Manchester. A CHEAP INVESTMENT. If it is likely to remove a source of everlasting discontent and class animosity, and to bring peace and prosperity to the country, it will be the cheapest Irish investment which Great Britain has made during the last four centuries.Newcastle Daily Journal. WELCOMED BY THE LANDLORDS. This is the first time that any Government has recognised the right of Irish landlords to compensation. The sum is small, barely 10 per cent, of the total purchase money, but the landlords will welcome this recognition of a principle for which they have been contending for many years.— Daily Express, Dublin. AN EXCELLENT BARGAIN. We believe the bargain to be an excellent one, which will be received by this country with a sense of positive relief. The financial liability is very small, and will diminish year by year, while the security will correspondingly improve in value. _ A peaceful neighbour devoted to exploiting the resources of his own country is an excellent customer.—Daily Telegraph. WELL WORTH THE MONEY. No Irish Land Bill ever yet fulfilled all its promises. But if we assume that Mr. Wyndham's Bill succeeds in the main operation of the transference of all the laud in Ireland to the tenants, the hope is so strong that there will be a consequent end of agrarian, trouble, that the taxpayer will be Well inclined to take the most cheerful vie-rv of the moderate demand made on his pocket.—Scotsman, Edinburgh.

MELANCHOLY CHAPTER'S CLOSE,

That the Bill will be considerably altered, and perchance improved, in its passage through Parliament may readily be believed. But we hope its main outlines will remain as they have been drawn, for even as it stands the measure serves to furnish a better prospect of closing a melancholy chapter in Irish history than has ever before been provided, and is a courageous attempt to utilise an unexampled opportunity.— Times,, Dublin..