WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 THE IRISH QUESTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13428, 20 March 1907, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 THE IRISH QUESTION.

The question of Home Rule for Ireland is looming large on the political horizon at Home just now, and it is daily becoming more evident that it will occupy a very large. share of Parliamentary attentionrduring the current year. Mr. John.Redmond, judging by his recen^pubyc utterances, believes mat .ft. (Government intends to propose a policy giving Ireland, if not all the Nationalists want, at least a large measure of self-government. And that his confidence is largely justified is clear for morfe than one reason. One significant fact is that for the first time a Minister of the Crown

— Dr. Macnamara — has joined a militant Irish {organisation. Then we have the speech of Mr Bryce, late Chief Secretary, at Newcastle recently, when he declared* that his thirteen mpnths* experience in that office na& strengthened his belief that it would be a great relief to the Imperial Parliament if it had not. to occupy its time so much with Irish questions; ihatit would be a nieans of . benefiting Ireland herself, la, means of advancing towards perfect social order, if the Irish came to think that the law rind the Government

were their own; and that the legislation which Ireland needs was constantly being imposed upon Jier foy a \Parliament in which the great majority knew nothing about Irish affairs and were therefore not competent to legislate for the country. To these arguments in favour of Home Rule his experience had, he said, added another, that there are many changes in the law which Ireland needs, which cannot he given her because they would not be accepted unless given by .sojfte sort of Irish authority. There are, he added, administrative acts which are right in themselves -and which are done every- day, but which are disliked and resented because they come from an authority which is not responsible to the Irish people and not supposed to be in harmony with their public opinion. However parochial these views may be — and they are very parochial — they were publicly expressed by one of the Ministers of the Crown, and must be taken as indicating in t . some degree the views of the Ministry as a whole. It is true that the extreme Nationalists did not consider Bryce's declarations aY altogether satisfactory or explicit, but that is not to be wondered at, for he ou the same occasion 6 "defended what are called Castle officials, the particular bete noir of the Nationalists, and he also commented upon the, marked improvement which has taken place in the conduct of Irish

affairs. But lie committed himself sufficiently, in stating his belief that Irish authority would deal more effectively than British with education in Ireland, and that it would be far better if the Irish were allowed a pretty wide latitude in spending a certain sum of money to be allowed to them, in their own way and for the purposes that they thought good — he committed himself sufficiently, we say, and in a measure his colleagues, to a policy which encourages the Nationalists to believe they are about to attain a large portion of what they are striving for. Whether that policy will prove a rock upon which the Liberal party will split remains to be seen. >