General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 24, 9 October 1885, Page 9

General News.

At a meeting of the Cork National League Mr. John O'Connor, M.P., who presided, said that whilst regretting the suspension of the MunEter Bank, he would charge the directors with political bias, and the management with having frequently disobliged friends of the Leagi c. When a director was recently appointed, a prominent landlord was elected in preference to the Nationalist Mayor of Cork. A rebolution was adopted regretting the suspension of the bank, and calling on the members of the League and their friends to aid in its resuscitation, as its permanent closure would injure a large number of f am era and traders in the South of Ireland.

Wonders will never ceaße. Here is the chief landlord organ, the Daily Express, actually preaching against giving up the land almost entirely to the production of cattle at the expense of tillage ) Our contemporary, referring to the action of an agricultural society in Er gland, for superior tillage, opens its mind as follows : — "This is a matter which in England is thought worthy of practical consideration, but here in Ireland it is almost entirely ignored, while so-called agricultural societies devote their whole attention to the production of cattle. While Scotland shows what can be done in the cultivation of green crops in its cold and ungenial soil, and England in cereals, under conditions naturally less favourable than exist in Ireland, it is lazily assumed at this side of the Channel that tillage will never pay, and that the land should be made a cattle ranch and a sheep walk, on which the flocks and herds may ream and subsist as best they can without any manual efforts to provide food for them. This is not the corvte which the business-like agriculturists of England take either in their societies or their farms. The result is that they are likely to develop a higher capacity to cope with foreign competition, even in corn and other crops, while many farmers in Ireland, even of the better class, seem disposed to let the conntry drift with the current without taking any precaution to preserve it." This certainly comes ■well from the chief newspaper advocate of the class that has deliberately made so many parts of Ireland vast sheep-walks and always stoutly maintained that cattle- raising and not tillage ought to be the business of Irish farmers. However, it is better that it should be converted late than never, and we only hope that its words will promptly be taken to heart by some of its landlord clientele who are still foolish enongh to think that it is their best policy to Bweep the people off the land to make room for cattle. — Nation.

As already announced, a new farmers' association, called the .Free Land League, has been formed in England. A meeting was held in London last week, under the presidency of Sir George Campbell, M.P., and at which there were several members of Parliament, candidates for Parliament, and others from various parts of England and Wales. The report of the committee appointed to prepare the programme of objects was considered, and ultimately the following was, on the motion of the chairman, adopted as the definite programme of the League :—"1.: — "1. Abolition of primogeniture, settlements, and restrictions in dealing with the land. 2. Enfranchisement of all inferior and customary tenures, and abolition of absolute manorial rights. 3. Compulsory registration of titles, and the simplest and cheapest system of transfer. 4. Preservation of commons, foreshores, roadsides, and popular rights over land and water, and restitution of those improperly taken away in recent times. 5. Enfranchisement of long non-agricultural leaseholds. 6. A modifica■tion of the law of landlord and tenant calculated to protect tenants from capricious eviction and to establish the right of the occupier to all improvements made by himself. 7. To promote the occupation and ownership of land by the people for residence and cultivation both by general laws and by the instrumentality of municipalities and other local bodies. — Dublin Freeman, August 8.

One of the commonest coru plaints in Ireland regards the overpoliced condition of the jmall towns, espec ally in the remoter parts of the country. It is nu unusual thing to have a force of twenty police in a little town, the like of which in England or any place else would-be apportioned only two or three, and the result of this is that those fine young fellows, the policemen, have little or nothing to do, and they become a set of little village tyrants, harrying the people. We do not find fault with the police so much, because, if employed in .productive capacities, they would be an honour and a strength to the substance and credit of the country. What we find fault with is the system, and when that system is worked in such a way as to set a body of Protestant police in authority over their comrades to rule the roast in a little Catholic commuuity, it becomes a very irritating and vexatious petty despotism. Let us take a case that happened the other day in Ballinrobe. The venerable Arcbbishop of l'uHin, after his return from Rome, entered upon a visitation of his diocese. In the course of it he visited Ballinrobe, and there were b nfires and illuminations in hn honour. Nobody will say that this was disloyal, disorderly, or exhibiting any rebelliousness against authority. Some young fellows in the exubeiance of thur heaitfelt rejoicings went to what the police called the excess of discharging some rockets. Such a manifestation would be considered most natural and laudable in any other country. But in Balhnrobe the police, with a trop de zele which provoked the inquiry that was made, prosecuted the young offenders. We immediately on hearing of this inquired as to the constitution of the police in the town. We found there were seventeen police in this little town consisting of one street and a half. We found further that of the seventeen police ten where Protestants, in a town were the entire Prot^otant population could be counted on tne fingers and toes We found further that amongst these ten Protestants five are officers — one of them an inspector, another of them the head -con stable, and three sergeants. Amongst t c seven Catholics comprising the rank and fiie of this little army there is not as much as a stripe on the arm-cuff. Does this explain the prosecution of the young men in the town for dischaiging rockets to welcome the return of the Catholic Archbishop? — Dublin Freeman, August 8.