HOME RULE QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1916, Page 7

HOME RULE QUESTION.

To thu Editor. ®' r - T crave space for a few lines re Mr. Wright's letter on Home Kule. It is ii thousand pities that the outside world does not know that there is so nmeli wisdom buried under an -empty bushel. in llabotu. I am sure if it smelied of petroleum, instead of vitriol, there would have been a bore through the barrel long ago. and the store released. Mr. Wright is <|iiite right when he says that the small tenant farmers are somewhat better oil than they have been since the year 1800. This is entirely due to the Land Purchase Bill, which 'the National Party wrenched from the combined forces of English statesmen and Tory landlords by sheer agitation and perseverance over a great number of years, but Mr. Wright must 'remember that Irish tenants are paying .interest and sinking fund for the accommodation the British Government afforded, just the same as New Zealand is paying for lier loans. Mr. Wright says that such a ihiug a.- the granting of a loan to buy out the Iris'h landlord could not possibly oe accomplished under Home Kule, at least until time is 110 more. Mr.. Wright ' must know perfectly well that New Zealand under "home rule" has borrowed over £100,000,000 already from Britain, whereas her trade with Britain does not exceed £32;000,000. Irish trade, on the other hand, exceeds £100,000,000, chiefly exports to Britain from Ireland] and I might ask the all-wise Mr. Wright if England would in his opinion refuse to trade with Ireland under Home llule, or does he for a moment think England under any.condition could not possibly for her own sake refuse Irish goods. On. the contrary, my opinion is that it \Vo'uld be morally impossible for Britain to do without, these goods. 1 quite agree with Mr. Wright that manufactures in Ireland are few, but why doesn't Mr. Wright give us a little mere from his great store of wisdom and tell us why there are not more manufacturers ill Ireland* If lie doesn't, I beg leave to do so. In 1872 Ireland was granted selfgovernment, which lasted for-IS years. 'During those IS years Irejand made more progress than any other country in Europe. It was turned into a iive hive of industry through its length and breadth, carrying a population of B'/ 2 . million people in comfort. But when Ireland was corruptly robbed of her 'Parliament they took good care to rob Ireland of her manufactories also by imposing a prohibitive tax on Irish manufactured goods. The Irish were not even allowed to send their goods to foreign markets. They were compelled to close down their works and were forced to sell the raw material to the English manufacturers at their own price and huy the manufactured goods back at English prices. In those days Ireland could undersell English goods and then make a good profit. If Mr. Wright travelled througli Ireland, as he claims to have done, collecting rags, hones and hottles, he must bear me out that, the remains of the old factories of Irish industries can lie seen all over the country, with their old machinery still in some of them, as a testimony to English legislation in Ireland. At least, this was the case 20 years ago. This state of affairs was brought about by the doings of the people of'Campbell's kidney, and consequently Irish people are a bit shy of putting such people in a position that might result in the re-occurrence of equally disastrous results. This discovery of Mr. Wright's of the exportation of 40.000 head of cattle across the Channel is nothing new, hut that English gold is responsible; for this exportation, in the same sense as the importation of motor-cars into Xew Zealand, is not quite correct. Undoubtedly England will have to pay the price of t'he cattle in the same sense as they <lo to the Americans or any other foreign country, and not in the same sense as mo-tor-cars, which are bought often on borrowed English money in New Zealand. Ireland would grow those cattle, and if English gold did not buy t'hem some other gold would. Once more. -Mr. Wright showed undoubted signs of aberration when he alludes to Mr. Gladstone and the Provincial Council in New Zealand. .Surely, he has not been so long asleep as to think that we are still governed by a Provincial Council, which was done away with many years ago, and which proved that it was even a failure in New Zealand, where there was- only a few thousand inhabitants at the timo. What it would be like in a country with millions of people I don't know. Mr. Wright 'hints at sending the Black Watch and the Highland Light Infantry to wipe out the Connaiight Bangers and Ministers. If their number is not more than two to one I will' put my coin on the Irish.—l am, etc., JOHN DIGGIXti. Lepperton, August 10.