N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1889.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1889.

IMPORTS NOT WANTED.

Ip there be one class of imports less desirable than others to introdnee into the Colony it is that of Old World

grievances and dissensions. The people of New Zealand may very well leave their fellow-subjects in Great Britain and Ireland to fight out for themselves the vexed question of Home Rule without meddling in the riispuie. Why should New Zealand colonists “ put in their oar? ” Nobody needs or desires their interference, or cares two straws for anything they- may say or do excepting in the way of money contributions, and surely New Zealanders have more useful employment alike for their time and their money than the expenditure of either in connection with political differences on the other side of the world. We are not Irishmen or Scotchmen or Welshmen or Manxmen out here, or even Englishmen—save in the general sense of being natural-born subjects of the Queen of are/New Zealand colonists, and we have guite enough to do in attending to our own affairs without allowing ourselves to : be dragged into a quarrel with which we have no real concern. Seyeral letters have lately reached us on the Home Rule Question, with special reference to the approaching visit of the Irish Delegates. The writers all take the same view as that expressed above —that it is a great pity for the harmony which now prevails among the colonists belonging by birth or descent to the var.ous divisions of the great British Empire, to be needlessly dis-tufbe-d by the importation of political disputes which are purely local in character, and have no bearing on the affairs of this Colony or its inhabitants. We would gladly have published these letters, two of which one emanating from Mr Coleman Phillips, and the other signed ‘‘Unionist” —are very ably written. But unfortunately both writers have passed beyond the immediate question with which we are nqw dealing, and haye entered into the Anglo-Irish dispute itself with an amount of vigour that could not fail to bring upon us an avalanche of fierce and voluminous correspondence for which we have neither space nor inclination. Mr Coleman Phillips in his letter says very justly and forcibly ; —Surely all divisions of race or creed should be allowed to j fade and die away in New Zealand. I Surely we might rest content with

loving our country, paying attention to its internal affairs, and refrain from interfering with outside troubles. Here we are all New Zealanders ; nothing more ; nothing less. An. Irishman should allow Irish troubles to drop when he comes here, and let byegones be byegones. It is no use to carry on the vendetta hero.” And our other correspondent “Unionist,” after remarking that “ It has hitherto been our happy experience as fellow-colonists to avoid any obtrusive assertion of our respective opinions upou a matter so calculated to excite feelings of intense irritation between us ” appeals earnestly to bis fellow-colonists not to permit this pleasing condition of affairs to be uselessly disturbed. With the views expressed by both ol these writers we most cordially agree, and we sincerely trust that they will find general acceptance. To us it appears utterly deplorable that there should be a gratuitous stirring up of strife in a peaceful community where hitherto entire concord has prevailed so far as all differences on the score of creed or birth or British politics are concerned. Here wo do not care what may have been a man’s birth or descent, or what his politics may have been in the Mother Country, or what creed (or nocreed) he may profess, so long as he is a good and worthy colonist. Let Whig and Tory, Separatist and Unionist, Romanist and Protestant, Orangeman and Ribbonman “ delight to bark and bite ” at one another as much as they please, so long as they Jieep their mutual grievances and hereditary feuds to their natural habitat, the other side of the world. But we do not want them here. It is not desirable that they should “ let their augry passions rise” on this side of the globe. We protest most earnestly against the importation of religious and national dissensions into this Colony, and we hope that any such mischievous attempt wll b * resolu eh discountenanced by every respect aid law-abiding and order-loving citizen.