JOHN DILLON INTERVIEWED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 21, 13 September 1889, Page 29

JOHN DILLON INTERVIEWED.

(Brisbane Courier.")

" Yes," said Mr. John Dillon, M.P., to a representative of this paper who interviewed him, " I am well pleased with my visit to Queensland. lam more than pleased. It has been in every way more satisfactory than I anticipated." " Then you look upon your mission, as far as Queensland is concerned, as a success," said the interviewer.

"A complete success," said Mr. Dillon, earnestly. " I estimate that the money I shall have collected will reach £8000 ; and the contributions, like the addresses, have not been confined to the Irish people. Do you know that in Port Douglas the contributions averaged £2 per head of the whole European population? The way people came forward was simply wonderf al."

11 And the people of the colony, do you think they are with yon?" was asked.

" I do," was the reply. " There have been counter demonstrations, I admit— and Ido not in any way blame the promoters of them — bat what have they been ? Compare them with my meetings, admission to which was fixed at a high figure. Were the men at the counter-meetings anything like the representative public men who gave their attendance and sympathy to me ? In Brisbane I had three Ministers of the Crown with me, and a large number of Members of Parliament, the majority of whom were English, Scotch, or Australian Protestants. Was there one really influential publio man at the counter-meeting ? The same in the North. Tha meetings at Townsville and Charters Towers were promoted and organised by one man, a Mr. Henry, and would you consider him a representative public man ? Were the meetings he area aged anything like those which were held to further the cause I came to advocate 1 No, I don't think the counter-meetings will be reckoned for much by Queensland people at any rate. I firmly believe that the people here are with us in obtaining for Ireland what they already possess." " You have been over the count ry a good deal, Mr. Dillon. Do you mind expressing your views concerning its growth ? " was the next question.

Mr. Dillon smiled — one of his rare smiles, for he is a man on whom the cares of work and ill-health have left a mark— and said : " No, I'm not going to give you the usual traveller's impressions. I do not think it possible to travel through a country as I have done, and form anything like a fair idea of its resources. You will find plenty of book writers ready to do that for you, and settle your future as well. I'm not sufficiently confident in my own judgment to do that. This I can say, that the colony is a surprise to ma ; the general appearance of prosperity after the terrible drought seems a most singular thing. The country must have wonderful recuperative power. I may also say that the western country was a revelation. Like a good many more men in thi Old Country, I thought all Central Australia was a desert. No doubt the old explorers were there in bad seasons, and so marked it down. At the time of my visit the country was ia a magnificent state, At Barcaldine I visited the wonderful bore, and had a bath ia the water. The water should be, I think, a great attraction for invalids. It seems to me — though I have not been an analysis of it — as though it would be a splendid thing for rheumatism. The climate out there should just suit invalids using the water, and with comfortable hotels I have no doubt many persons would go out to Bircaldine to recover their health.

"Your impressions of the colony, if favourable, might be of advantage to the colony," was suggested. " People interested in Queensland loans would perhaps be assured of the excellence of their security."

" Well," was the reply, " I'm unfortunately not a business man. I don't think my opinion of the colony's financial position would be of much service to anyone. I'm not regarded as an authority on finance. When 1 can say a good word for Queensland I shall do bo. No one has a greater opinion of her destinies — with her Bister colonies — than I have."

" There is one matter, Mr. Dillon," said our representative, " on which I should like to have your views — the appointment of colonial Gjvernors.'

" I have thought the matter over a good deal," said the M.P., " and I find there has been, from perhaps a very small section of the community in Australia, an expression in favour of tke colonial appointing their own Governors. Now my view of the matter ii entirely different. I regard the Governor of a colony — that is a colony with representative Government — exactly as I regard the Queen — a mere nominal head of the Government, a figurehead, Whilst Australia retains her connection with Great Britain— and I see no immediate possibility of that being disturbed — and whilst the present system of Government exists, the Imperial Government mast be represented. It is impossible for it to be otherwise, and it would be decidedly unreasonable for the colonies to expect to elect the representative of the Imperial Government. Besides being unreason* able to expect to elect such representatives it would be very unwise to do no. The Governor is now a mere figurehead. He is necessary under the system of Government, but in the actual government of a colony he has no power. Queensland proved that. Make him a person elected directly by the people or by their representatives, and whac will the result be ? He will have a powerful position. He will have his party, and be able to take a stand that he would not dream of taking now. The only safety the people of the colonies have is to krep the Governor what he at present is — a political, social, figure* head."

" You were at home, Mr. Dillon, when Queensland protested against the appointment oC Sir Henry Blike as Governor, were yoa not? "

" Yes," said Mr. Dillon ; " I was in the House when the telegram from Queensland was read. You may depend that we received it with cheers. It was too great an opportunity for the Irish party to let slip. We could not help it, but we gave three cheers. The Imperial Government were fearfully annoyed at the protest, and did

not know what to do. There was very little sympathy with them. It was really an insult to Queensland to Bend out an Irish police officer as their Governor — and it was intended as an insult. The position of a Governor in a representative colony is such that only men of very high position should be sent out to fill, and the result of Queensland's protest has been of great benefit to all the other colonies."

" Well, coming back to your impressions here, Mr. Dillon ; have you^een to Parliament House ? " t fp i Yes, I hare attended on several occasions and had very great satisfaction in doing so. I was much impressed with what I saw there, and consider that you have a high class of public men. Another thing I could not fail to remark — that was the unanimity and good feeling expressed when matters affecting the colonies generally were referred to ; but there was still one thought which more than all others filled my mind, and that was the great privilege Queensland has in her own Parliament, making her own laws for internal government, managing her own affairs. I could not help contrasting the position with that of unhappy Ireland. Here I saw existing all that we have for long years been striving after ; saw what would be the realisation of our hopes, our anxions work ; saw a people of a British colony happy, prosperous, full of hope and the energy and heart for work that hope gives " Mr. Dillon paused. He had been speaking rapidly in a long tone, not in the measured words and phrases which characterise his public utterances. He was under a strong impulse. His face was flushed, and his earnest eyes, for the first time during the interview, gave some reflex of the great mmd — the restrained and repressed feeling working under the cold, even repellant outer man.

For a few moments the interviewed and the interviewer sat silent. The theme touched upon was not one to be followed out .on such an occasion. It was evident that the visit of John Dillon, M.P., to the Parliament of Queensland had wrought some great hope in his heart. Out in the free air one may fill his head with vain questionings as to the feeling that floods a prisoner's mind as a ray of sunshine flashes into a cold, cheerless cell, or a few notes from the song of a bird on the wing defies his bars and keepers and breaks up the silence of his surroundings. Such a feeling can never be described. Mayhap John Dillon, M.P., felt it, and there was doubtless hope in his eyes as there was an unspoken desire in the rapid flow of his unpremeditated speech. Mr. Dillon was the first to speak again, and perhaps it was politeness — perhaps the time-honoured characteristic of the Irishman — which prompted him in what he said. " The greatest wonder to me in all Australia," said he, "is the Press. lam not speaking only of the papers which have helped my mission and given me fair play —I speak of them generally, and as literary productions. They are simply marvellous. The leading journals of Australia are equal, in my opinion, to any in the world. They are vast affairs, and the circulation they have and the great enterprise shown in getting news are astonishing."

"By the way, how did the Press generally treat you?" was asked.

" I have not much to complain of in Queensland," was the reply. " Only one paper attacked me unfairly, and that was an obscure print at Townsville. In every other place the papers which did not agree with what I said discussed my platform fairly and moderately ; bat there were very few which were not with me. I may say that in Australia, as in London, Irish matters are very greatly misrepresented in the Press telegrams ; but this is not the fault ot the editors. The correspondents send the news they get in Londen, and not records of events as they actually transpire."

A few short remarks from Mr. Dillon on the private hospitality ■hown him in Queensland by all classes brought the interview to a close.