THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1911. THE CASE FOR HOME RULE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15186, 4 July 1911, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1911. THE CASE FOR HOME RULE.

Thk delegates from the.lrish Nationalist party had good reason to bo gratified with the reception,, sympathetic and practical, that was accorded to them last night by the large audience which they addressed in the Garrison Hall. And even if the audienco had been composed of opponents of the Homo Rule movement it would have had little cause to quarrel with the terms in which the delegates presented thoir case. Moderation was, distinctly the keynote of the speeches. Mr Hazelton, to whom was aligned the distinction of doliwrmg the main speech of the evening—a distinction that was doubtte ascribablc to his manifest posses-ion of dialectical ability that was superior to that of his colleagues,—was especially temperate in his treatment of the question. There was no suggestion from him, such as Mr Redmond offered, that the Irish people were being hounded down and oppressed by a few landlords, nor did he give utterance to any such impolitic assertion -as that of Mr lionovan, whose impassioned oratory appealed very directly to the hearts of his countrymen among tlu audience, that loyalty on the part or" the Irish could not bo expected until they had something to be ]oy,aJ to. His speech was etudded, on the other hand, with loyal and patriotic* sentiments of a kind that could he met with nothing but approval in Ulster itsslf, and generally it was of a character that was much moro strongly calculated than the speeches of bis co-delegates were to make a favourable impression upon the minds of persons who were open to conviction upon the Homo Rule question. As staled bv him, the Nationalists' case- is oiu; to which the people of a country like this, who are in the enjoyraonj, of the ripht of

self-government, can hardly be othar than favourable. Hβ summarised tho claim of. the Nationalists by saying that they seek the right to manago and control their o\m purely Irish domestic affairs in their own way. Under a. system of national autonomy such as the Nationaliets desire, tho Irish people, he said, would continue to send a number of representatives to tho Imperial Parliament because they wcro ready to continue to pay their fair proportion of taxation for the maintenance of Imperial services, such as the Crown, the Army, the Navy, nnd so on, but they would not be satisfied until, eubject to these limitations, they received the s.imo power to manage their national concerns .Iβ was possessed by the people of the ecifgoverning dominions in various parts of the Empire. Mr Hazclton apparently anticipates that the Homo Rulo proposals of tho Liberal Government that' is now in power will follow pretty 'closely the lines of the Home Rulo Bill which was brought down by Mr Gladstone in, 1893. It may, perhaps, be doubtful whether this anticipation will be fully- realised. Much water hae flowid under the bridges in the past eightocn years, and it is at lenet questionable whether tho scheme of Home Rulo that w<is submitted by Mr Gladstone will be quite the same as that which Mr Asquith will bring forward. But Mr Bazelton and hU colleagues would aecm to have overy justification for the assumption that, whatever the precise form ot' self-government that may be offered to Ireland, tho end of the struggle which in its constitutional uspect was initiated by Mr Isaac I3utt is in sight. The passage of the Parliament till, limiting tho power of veto that may bo exercised'by tho House of Lords, is reasonably assured, and with tho enactment of that measure the principal obstacle to the bestowal of self-govern-ment on Ireland will bo removed. With tho Nationalist delegates, wo think that any suggestion that the Unionists of Ulster will openly rebel against the introduction of. Home Rule may be derided. The ULsteracn would indeed ■be false to their declarations of loyalty if they were to adopt any measures to ridiculous as the taking up of aims against the operation of ft scheme enaded by the Imperial Parliament and assented to by the Crown. We tiro not so sure, however, that they will obtain Mich a measure of representation in an Irish National Parliament as will be satisfactory to them. Tho fact that Irish Protestants are to be found in the Nationalist party in tho House of Commons and that Irish Catholics among tho Nationalist members of tho Imperial Parliament owe their election in some degree to the support they receive from Protestants in their constituencies demands complete recognition. On the other hand, it ie not to be ignored that the Protestants and Unionists aro en- v trusted at the present day with but n meagre measure of representation on tho local governing authorities ifn some pails of Ireland where tho Nationalists are a preponderating element in tho community. In Minister, according to Tho Timte, thero are but two Unionist county councillors out of 227, and in Corniaught thero is only one out of 143. Nor is it a very impressive argument, which Mr Redmond Uees, that the Irish would,object as strongly to government from Borne, eince that would be government from a foreign country, as they object to government from England. But it is to be acknowledged by reasonable people that the existing ■ system of government in Ireland, which is justly described as government by a bureaucracy, has caused, and continues to cause, dissatisfaction and murmuring, and we cannot 'but feel that the bestowal of autonomous powers oh the country, though it may at first produce irritation and resentment on the part of a powerful minority of the people, is likely in tho end, and even, we hope> before long, to bo fraught with marked benefit to Ireland as a whole. Nor is the incidental gain that will bs achieved through the removal from the sphere of tho House cf Commons of the distractions that are, at the cost Of a great doil of valuable time which nright advantageously be devotej to the discussion of Imperial affairs, associated with tho ventilation of Irieh domestic grievances altogether to be overlooked. Subject to tho wholly unimpaired maintenance of the Imperial supremacy, concerning the acceptance of which condition the Nationalist delegates offer tho moat absolute assurances as to the good faith of tho party and tho people they represent, the cause of Home Rulo is one that commends itself to thi) prevalent sentiment" in tlie self-governing dominions.