THE HOME RULE MEETING

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13392, 22 January 1907, Page 4

THE HOME RULE MEETING

Therk can be no possible objection to any individual citizens assisting by their money and influence any legitimate political movement in the United Kingdom or in any other country. But it is a very different matter when the Chief Magistrate of a city consents to preside over a public meeting which has for its purpose the expression of partisan opinion upon an external question that is exceedingly debatable. It will be freely admitted by all who are conversant with the Irish problem that the complete local selfgovernment which is advocated by Mr. Devlin and his colleagues is a question which divides British parties as few questions have divided* them ; nor can it be fairly claimed that a similar difference of opinion does not exist in the colonies among those who have taken the trouble to study the various issues involved. Nor is this difference of opinion a merely polemic one. It is accompanied on both sides by a bitterness of temper and a virulence of language which prove the intensity of feeling which is thereby aroused. Under the circumstances, therefore, and without challenging in any way the right of those who sympathise with Mr. Devlin to freely express their sympathy with the Home Rule movement and to liberally assist it with their money, we must regret that Mr. Myers should have consented, as Mayor of Auckland, to preside over the meeting to be held here next week.