" CHINESE" GORDON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 411, 25 February 1881, Page 16

" CHINESE" GORDON ON THE LAND QUESTION.

The following letters have appeared in the Times: — Sir, — The Irish question deeplj interests all classes of people at the present moment. Among others, Colonel Gordon has been lately investigating it on the spot. He has written me the following brief remarks, and as may be imagined from his previous career, he goes to the root of the matter. The vast interest of the subject must be my excuse for sending this private letter for publication, which I do on my own responsibility. Whether the public will agree in his conclusions or not, at least they offer a new departure for consideration, and they are those of a man who has wielded autocratic power over millions of human beings, and who knows the responsibilities of government. — I am, sir, your obedient servant, December 1. J. My "Dear J. — You are aware how interested I am in the welfare of this country, and having kr own you for 26 years I am sure I may say the same of you. I have lately been over to tlie South-West of Ireland in the hope of discovering how some settlement could be made of the Irish question, which, like a fretting cancer, eats away our vitals as a nation. I have come to the conclusion that — 1. A gulf of antipathy exists between the landlords and tenants of the North- West and West and South- West of Ireland. It is a, gulf which is not caused alone by the question of rent ; there is a complete lack of sympathy between the two classes. It is useless to inquire how such a state of things has come to pass. 1 call your attention to the pamphlets, letters, and speeches of the landlord class as a proof of how little sympathy or kindness there exists among them for the tenantry, and I am sure that tie tenantry feel in the same way towards the landlords. 2. No half -measure Acts which left the landlords with any thing to say to thetenantjy of these portions of Ireland will be of any use. They would be rendered, as past land acts in Ireland have been, quite abortive ; for the landlords will insert clauses to do away with their force. Any half measures will only place the Government face to face with the people of Ireland as the champions of the landlord interest. The Government would be bound to enforce their decision, and with a result whiwh none can foresee, but which certainly would be disastrous to the common weal. 3. My idea is that, seemg — through this cause or that it is immaterial to examine — a deadlock has occurred between the present landloids and tenants, the Government should purchase up the rights of the landlords over the whole or greater part cf Longford, Westmeatb, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Leitnm, Sligo, Mayo, Cavan, and Donegal. The yearly rental of these districts is some four millions ; if the Government give the landlords 20 years' purchase, it would co6t 80 millions, which at 3£ per cent, would, give a yearly interest cf £2,800,000, of which £2,5u0,000 could be recovered ; the lands would be Ciown lands ; they would be administered by a land commission which might for a short time need £100,000. This would not injure the landlords, and so far as it is an interference with proprietary rights, it is as just as is the law which forces Loid A to aUow a railway to run through his park for the public benefit. I would restrain the landlords from any power or control in these Crown land districts. Poor-law, roads, schools, &c, should be under the Land Con-mibsion. 4. For the rest of Ireland I would pass an Act allowing free sale of leases, fair rents, and a Government valuation. In conclubion, I must say, from all accounts and my own observation, that the slate of our fellow-countrymen in the parts I have named is worse than that of any people in the world, let alone Europe. I believe that these people are made as we are, that they are patient beyond belief, loyal, but, at the same time, broken-spirited and de&peiate, living on the verge of starvation in places in which we would not keep our cattle. The Bulgarians, Anatolians, Chinese, and Indians, are better off than many of them are. The priests alone have any sympathy with their sufferings, and naturally alone have n hold over them. In these days, in common justice, if we endow a Protestant university, why should we not endow a Catholic university in a Catholic country? Is it not as difficult to get a £6 note from a Protestant as from a Catholic or a Jew 1 Read the letters of and of and tell mo

if you see in them any particle of kind feeling towards the tenantry ; and if you have any doubts about this, investigate the manner in which the relief fund was administered, and in which the sums of money for improvements of estates by landlords were expended. In 1833 England gave freedom to the West Indian slaves at a cubt uf 20 millions — worth now 30 millions. This money left the country. England got nothing for it. By an expenditure of 80 millions she may free her own people. She would have the hold over the land, and bho would cure a cancer. lam not well off, but 1 would offer or his agent £1000 if either of them would live one week in one of tlio c poor devils 1 places, and feed as these people do. Our comic prints do an infinity of harm by their caricatures — firstly, the caricatures nrc not true, for the crime in Ireland is not greater than that in England ; and, secondly, they exasperate the people on both sides of the Channel, and they do no good. It is ill to laugh and scoff at a question which affects our existence. — Yours sincerely, C. G. GOEDOK.