THE IRISH BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 4

THE IRISH BILL.

Measures put forward for the solution of Irish difficulties notoriously give satisfaction -to very few, and the. Administrative Council (DublinX Bill is no exception to this unhappy; rule. It is hardly necessary to premise that the British Cabinet has:

approached the question with even '''■■\\ desire to provide an acceptable; pro. | posal," and that the "very best efforts •■ ' and most earnest thoughts of it? members have been freely given. Yet in spite of this, and in spit« of the Home Rule sympathies of several prominent Cabinet Ministers, the result is no more satisfactory than if no care whatever had : 1 been taken. Neither Unionists not f Nationalists are. disposed to accept I it, and those Nationalist politicians 1 who wish to do so, on the ground • that half a loaf is better than nc bread, are being hotly denounced % their erstwhile supporters. From » colonial point of view this general dissatisfaction is not to be wonder- I ed at, for the constitution of the proposed council gives a dominating,': majority to the Government nominees, and thus only the pretence of power to the elected members. This is the objection of the Nationalist*, who refuse to see in the Bill any advance whatever towards local selfgovernment; but the Unionists ' equally oppose the Bill, on the ground that it is a move in .a false direction and calculated to open the door to worse evils. As we have ■ repeatedly pointed out, the real difS- ! culty in the Irish question is the manner in which the local autonomy of the Emerald Isle is always treat- ,'' I ed as a separate matter to that of the sister kingdoms. This is largely \ . I due to the blighting influence ot Dublin Castlo and to the difficulty of making political headway against "-' the bureaucratic methods which - it has established. The Colonial Office is inept enough, but Dublin Castle is not only inept but .an actual - power. If Ireland were treated as '. * one of the three kingdoms, and if . an inclusive measure according local • I autonomy to each of them or to neW divisions of them "'were introduced, it would have much greater pros- ■ pects of being ultimately satisfactory. ,If ' there were Edinburgh Castle government Scotland would naturally be as discontented as Ire- ' land, and there is literally no local government reform required on one side of .the Irish Sea which would not be, advisable on the other. But, -':'.,■ however that may be, every attempt . to patch up the existing system by ' half-heartedly 'compromising be- . ! tween what the Nationalists want V and what the Unionists do not want ' can only offend both and can gratify neither. ' " ::