The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] MONDAY, DECEMBER' 28, 1903.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11139, 28 December 1903, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY .] MONDA Y, DECEMBER' 28, 1903.

•!' A PROSPEROUS IRELAND. The truly wonderful improvement in the national conditions of Ireland, which is gradually but certainly taking • shape under the present wise Imperial administration of the affairs ( of that distressful country, cannot fail to give the liveliest .satis- j faction to all who desire the unity and strengthening of the . English-speaking race. It is fitting that this drawing together, as it were, of the two peoples should come at a time when a policy is on foot to knit in close and true union all the component parts of the great British Empire., Mr John Redmond, the leader <jf the Irish Nationalist party in the House of Commons, a man not likely to be easily satisfied, has recently made a most important public declaration as to the prospects of Ireland, and if lie is pleased with the turn things are taking, there are few of his way of thinking in Irish politics who can cavil. The new Land Act, says Mr Bedmofid, has worked such a revolution in the whole internal machinery,that there is now full and profitable employment for Irishmen in their own country, instead of their having to emigrate and seek a living elsewhere. This is good news indeed. It is now more than half a century since the great exodus from Ireland to the United States of America 'began' to take place, and during that periocT the Emerald Isle has literally been bled white, at. an average of about fifty "thousand a year. If the present exodus were "allowed to continue as it has done in trie past, another fifty years would sec tfcte population of Ireland reduced to less than -two* and a half millions, and the people iroulel undoubtedly he the most' backward and impoverished in all Europe. However, we are encouraged by the > brighter look-out and the sensibly improved relations already existing betweer. England and Ireland to anticipate that ' the tide has turned- for good and that J prosperous times are' in , store. It is particularly fortunate that the British Government should just now be led to serious efforts to help, depopulated Ireland. America for a long time was a very Utopia to the young emigrant forced into exile. It was a real land of the free. Ireland's sons, worn out with mismanagement and misgovernment at home, went with enthusiasm across the Atlantic, with willing hearts and brawny arms to win in a foreign land what was denied to them in the land of their birth. America had not then been contaminated by rings, and combines, and such like. Matters there are very different now, und though the land laws are as liberal as ever, and the facilities of carriage are incalculably greater than was the case fifty or sixty years go, the tide of prosperity seems, temporarily at any rate, to be on the ebb, and there is a rushing stampede across the border into Canada. And there must, moreover, be a deadly slump if Britain turns protectionist. Ireland's modern misfortunos date from the repealing of what is: known as Poster's Corn Law. of 1784, which, told in short, granted bounties on all grain exported and at the same time la id,^ stiff duty on imported wheat under certain conditions. It bought about a great prosperity, vast pasture lands were broken up.'into small tillage farms, and the quantity of corn, meal, and flour exported in 1 twelve years after the passing of the Act exceeded that which was exported in the eighty-four years that preceded it. The whole country flourished amazingly and the population rapidly augmented and the prosperity kept pace with tho growth. How all that w.as changed by the repeal of the Com Laws, how the condition of things in Ireland went from bad to worse, how Ireland has become a by-word, a splendid country to live out of, he who runs may read. No good or useful purpose would be served in this article by discussing the endless mistakes that have been made by the governors and governed to bring such absolute ruin about; it is the present and the future we have to deal with. Let the past be forgotten in. the promise of the present. For many years past the state ot Ireland has been exercising ' the minds of the greatest of British statesmen, but itis only lately, by the party in power, that any practical good has-been effected, me estrangement which ensued on the rejection by the House of Lords of Mr Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1894 has lessened appreciably during the past few years. The evident earnest anxiety of the present

Government to better the condition of. : Ireland has not been without its due re^- * suit. The passage of the Tenant Right .~ \ Bill was^ a big step in the' direction' of 'usef ill ' reform and now the^' Land Act is „ earning golden opinions by *its pperationi There is a general concensus of opinion- - I—if we .except the big landowners-^thji^ the measure will go far to Tevivify IHsh industry and agriculture on a prosperous basis. A politician of Mr Redmond's men and experience is not likely to"s»e mistaken in reading the signs .of (r iEe times, and we may hope with him tjult' things will prove as bright "in the near , „ , future for Ireland as are to be span any--'.-: where in the Empire .on-" xMcl»>^i«,^iitt *; never sets. Then>w-ill b^-ttjfe'^ii^^w^ , ' ', dom re-united.-;»'t'N^;^f*' -t* l->.l ->. •**?;» .("Viir -»v