HOME RULE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 7857, 19 August 1886, Page 3

HOME RULE.

TO THS BWIOB OF THB RBW ZSAIASD TIMES Sib, —The question how far it would be prudent to grant Home Rule to Iceland may in part bo determined by the following facts! —The annual cost of the Irish Constabulary la about a million and a half of pound*. In the law-abiding district of Ulster the number of constables to each 10.000 inhabitants is about eleven. In the comparatively lawless residue of Ireland, the number of constables to each 10.000 Inhabitants ia about thirty. Were the people of the residue of Ireland as law-abiding as the people of Ulster, the cost of the Irish Constabulary might be reduced one-half. To confer powers of self-government upon a people who have not learned the first requisite of all government, obedience te law, would be the height of tolly. Those who h&ve studied the subject are aware that the evils of Ireland are due not to the laud laws not to the Government, but to the people themselves. A more warmhearted, kindly race there is not, but grevionsly misled, giving themselves up to lawlessness, they cannot prosper. Do not let us be alarmed at the word coercion. Coercion is exercised all over the world In civilised States. By the Supreme Court of New Zealand, for example, at every criminal session. But as the people in the southern parts of Ireland band themselves together for lawless purposes, and juries have refused to convict upon the clearest testimony, exceptional measures of repression are rendered necessary. And the misleaders who complain of such exceptional measures take care to suppress all mention of the causes which render their exislance a necessity. The Irish Constabulary ought not to be mentioned without adding that they are as fine a body of men and as earnest in the execution of their duty as any troops in the world.— I am, &0., O.