A WORD IN SEASON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 352, 16 January 1880, Page 5

A WORD IN SEASON.

(Prom the Southland Times.') A pew days ago the cable informed us that movements were on foot m Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide to afford relief to the sufferers by the famine m Ireland. This is no more than might have been anticipated from our knowledge of the exteut of the calamity and of the quick sympathy of colonists with anything affecting their kindred at home. The state of Ireland is indeed deplorable. Recent years had brought about great improvement in the condition of those of the population who lived by field labour, and as small holders of the soil ; but, after all, they would seem to have been existing but from hand to mouth, and the first serious failure of harvest has threatened to reproduce the misery of 1840. In portions of Connaught every kind of crop appears tc have given way— oatp, potatoes hay, and turnips—so that in the fall of the year the people were said to be on the borders of starvation. The picture drawn by those on the spot, of the actual state of things, is dismal enough, but it was the prospect for the winter that was most appalling. The Government, we notice, is interfering, and, we hope, not too late to prevent the actual experience of a famine, and its results, It would be worse than useless to enquire at present into the circumstances that have led to this inability of the people to cope with the visitation that has come on them, or to listen to the charges so freely brought by partisans against Irish landlords, of extortion and tyranny. There may have been faults in the landlords and faults in the people, and it may be possible for legislation to come profitably between them, but these are matters for after consideration. It is enough in the meantime to know that distress of so dire a kind is at the door of thousands of the Irish people, and to feel that their claim for relief extends to all of their own immediate blood, wherever they may be found, as well as to all those who, with them, are under British rule. The sympathy that was extended in times of famine to China and India is not likely to fail when asked for on behalf of Irishmen. We have heard of no systematic movement as yet in New Zealand in the interest of the suffeiers, but it is quite time it had begun. We have many of the Irish race among us— many who have done well— and the duty is .primarily theirs of coming to the aid of their countrymen. It would be an admirable occasion on which to bury their feuds and unite their sympathies. They could do so for a national purpose of which every one could comprehend the meaning, and admit the kindlineas and wisdom. Instead of standing in hostile order under green and yellow, and cherishing the bitter memories of Derry and the Boyne, the Irishmen of New Zealand might here at least forget their dif* ferences, and form one phalanx for the rescue of their countrymen. It is unnecessary for us to appeal to their feelings, for the warmth of these is proverbial, and well-known to the world. We ask them only toconstder and to contrast their own position in this thriving country with that of their suffering brethren at home. When Irishmen shall have initiated their undertaking, there will be no lack of hearty cooperation from the other nationalities. Englishmen and Scotchmen will vie with them in liberality, and the result, we have no doubt, will be a substantial addition to the world's fun<? for the relief of Ireland.