Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 21, 25 May 1899, Page 9

Irish News.

OUR IRISH LETTER.

(From our own correspondent.) Dublin, March 2.5. SMALL AND VET GItEAT. Xov\ that the Urban election" are over, it mny be nsked. in sober earnest, what are these new powers granted to the people, rhe.se powers that arc intended to make them give ovtrall longings for Home Rule ? They are very small indeed, and they are very great. Very little, inasmuch as the work to be done is the same woik that has always had to be done, /./'., the levying ot local rates and taxes and the expending of same on the poor and on lunatics, on keeping the towns and country clean and wholesome, and making the townß and country pay for it all. This is practically what the new Urban, County, and Rural Districts Councils are permitted to do ; in a word, precisely what was done before. The difference is that the work will henceforth be in the hands of men and, in certain cases, of women who are in sympathy with the people, who have been elected by the people, who have the interests of their own country and people at heait, and who, if they do not act for the common good, can be turned out by the people. This is where the power is great and is, in a measure, home rule. Hitherto all such power lay in the hands of the landlord class, at least all control over the work paid for by the people, but jobbed and managed so as to suit the ends aud needs of a class utterly devoid of patriotism. The whole public work of the country was in the hands of gentlemen who were called county grand jurors — land owners and land agents, with a small, almost infinitesimal sprinkling of that class of wealthy Irish who have been spoilt by generations of English rule, and who, to gain this coveted position, had to forswear all national feeling — beings than whom none can be smaller or meaner. These grand jurors nominated and co-operated with each other, and managed the business of their counties, and spent the ratepayers' money precisely as suited their own interests and the interests of the Government. They were almost invariably strong political partisans, opposed to every thing that could emancipate or give full justice to the real people of the country ; averse to every movement that could raise the Irish to any power, political, social, or commercial. Now, for the iirst time, free voting and the new Local Government enable the Irish to elect men whom they can trust, men who. feeling where the shoe pinches, can remedy the last ; men who, earning and paying the taxes that are spent on public works, can best judge what outlay or what economy will be for the uuiversal good, what are the actual wants, what will best remedy these wants. If the men chosen first do not properly perform their duty, well, as I before said, there is no longer class, clique, or prejudice, no ' co-opting ' ; they can be turned out and better men cho&en by the elector?. THE COUXTY COUNCIL ELECTION'S. So far the elections have been Urban. In April will come the County elections which are finally to supersede the rtign of the landlord Grand Junes. Now, the hitherto rulers under the old system have fought hard and fast, tooth and nail, as the saying is, against this measure. To induce them to give a sort of sulxy consent to it, instead of doing as the old Emperor of Germany would have done, pass the law that seemed for the general good, whether any one class liked it or not, Parliament bribed the Irish landlords with a great and unjust bribe. It freed them — the impoverishes s of three-fourths of our poor — from what is known as poor rates. In other words, gave them £400,000 a year and turned o\er the support of the poor on the shoulders of the already over-burdened taxpayers. In spite of this, the landlords are working heavea and earth to be permitted to have their cake and eat it. They are coaxing, praying, begging, even threatening in order to get elected on the new councils. One noble lord, of yachting notoriety, is credited with holding almost a threat of eviction over the heads of his tenantry if they do not return him as member of the local County Council. The Irish, on their side, have taken hold of this new power to work it, as they honestly and candidly say, for the improvement of the country and as a means towards th j genuine Home Rule. To this end they are electing men known to be of national politics, but also known to be good men of business, who will not, and, in fact, cannot (they will be too well watched) job out the public money to their sisters, their cousins, and their aunts. We may now literally take in the latter as the new law says that, * Every person, whether

a man, a womaa, or a peer,' is entit'ed to ba on the register of voters, aDd a man, a wouwn, or a peer can likewise be on certain of the councils, and a woman can be chairman of the Urban District Council. It was not an Irishman {riven to making bulls who worded these regulations, making" a chairu>an of a woman and leaving- it to be inferred that a peer is looked upon as the i^issing 1 link in creation. However, while politely— and not unnaturally— preferring to give our own men a fair Trial, seeing that, we pay the piper and consequently have the calling of the tune, the landlords have only to produce tried men of their class who have been genuinely friends of the people, and such men will be warmly welcomed. I j fear many cannot be found, hut- none need fear the want of courtesy, I no more than they need look for the forced subserviency of old ascendency days. I cannot give a better example of the general tone ot tiie electors at this momentous crisis than by quoting a few words t-piken by the Bishop of -Iciiasjh. at a convention held in | his diocese for the purpo.>e of selecting candidates for the County Council: ' . . . . You. will see that we make no dictation to any constituency. There must, as long as human nature remains imperfect, always exist riv ilry and jealousy and selfishness amongst us. None of us is perfect. But let us try, iv memory of a common o deal in the past — which is recognised as the best knitter of brotherly love— let uh, in this eventful year of national dawn, try to minimise these e vil« I would take the liberty of addressing one word of warning tv candidates and electors. To the former I should say : Seek not your own interests so much as the honour and fair name of your motherland. Learn before you seek thf3 people's suffrages the irrrat responsibilities that will devolve upon you. You must see your way to devote your time and your serious attention, and your solid, patient labour many days in the year to your duties. Don't undertake the work unless you are in a position to make these sacrifices. If your election is contested, don't allow your reason and dignity to be obscured by passion. Don'c indulge in bitter and reproachful words ; they cause a wound that festers and tortures when their memory should be blotted out To the electors I should say : You have every opportunity in the secrecy of the ballot to act honestly for your country. You have a sacred trust given you, and do not tamper with it. Let your vote be given to merit, and not to favour or affection. You are all sensible, and, for the most part, educated men and women. Study the lives and of the different candidates that come before you. Your conscience will then dictate the course you are to follow.' This is a rather lengthly dissertation on our County Council elections, but they are the great Irish question of the day. They do not, however, prevent pleasmes from brightening life, and even though we are in lentjn season, when the great majority of the Iri^h people abstain from public amusements, the court balls and dinner.-, levels and drawingrooms at Dublin Castle are in full swing under the r<;jtmc of Lord and Lady Oadogan, the season to wind up atter Ku»ter with the race week, during which the Duke and Duchess of York arc to visit Dublin. We have an old clan song on one side of my family, ' John O'Dw^ur oi the glen,' the first line of which runs : ''TIS I'AST THE WOODS ARE FVLLING, 1 in reference to the wholesale destruction (during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) of the wools of Ireland, in order that the outraged owners of the land might not even have the shelter of their own woods when stripped of their castles and lands by Acts ot Parliament passed to enrich royal favourites or to reward those who lent money to pay English troops. Many of the woods grew up again and formed no small part of the natural beauty that filU Irish hearts with love of our -fond and fair land' and attracts lovers of scenery from other countries. For some years past the quc-tion of compulsory purchase of the vast estates throughout Ireland aud the resale of tnein for the benefit of the tenantry, has, a-, you know, been frequently debated, and it is thought will eventually have to be made law. la anticipation of this, numbers ot itlion e-ttate owners throughout the land are wantonly ruining the beau*y of the fairest scenes, as well as injuring the climate by the wholesale destruction of woods on their property. In this way, a great pare of the far-famed Vale of Avoca has been stripped of the timber that made it so fair, and its stately trees have been eonvc-ried into matches 1 And now Mr. John Parnell (brother of Mr. Charles S. Parnell), owner of Avondale, is at the same unpatriotic work. Speaking of the Parnell family, none of the late leader's parliamentary colleagues approve of the Life published by Mr. Barry 0 lirien According to their judgment, a much better biography in nearly ready for the press. The name of 0 Brien reminds me of a comical trick played upon the Government by a friend of Mr. William O'Brien, whioh

shows to what lengths the Government will go in order to make political capital in this country. A LITTLE JOKE. It was well known in the days of the Laud League agitation that the letters of all Irish M.IVr prominent in politics were ' grahaniised ' in the Post Otlice ; that is. opened and read, and iho contents, if of any political importance, communicated in o'heial quarters before the letters were forwarded to their owncis. Mv story comes a little after the fair, but it was only lately it leaked out. During I,S')S national badges commemorative of 17!>S-l,s'is, buttons, scarves, pins, and so on. were a good deil worn lr\ Nationalists. There wer > green flags, harps and shamrocks, portraits ot "its men. crossed pikes, an i all kinds ot designs. It appears that Mr. Wm O'Brien ordered some small si her emblems in the crossed pike (the Irish did good execution with this weapon in 17.is) design of a Dublin silversmith. Some wag of Mr. O'Brien's acquaintance heard of the order and determined to have a joke over it. He accordingly wrote a post-card dated trom the silversmith's establishment, addressed to Mr. O'Brien, and bearing simply the words : ' The pikes are ready.' The post -card was seized in the Post Office, Government acquainted with the ominous words written thereon, prompt measures were taken in Dublin Castle, orders issued thence to the police authorities and a strong posse of police marched to the premises of the astounded and then highly amused silversmith. When the officer in command sternly demanded the surrender of all the unlawful weapons in his possession, we can imagine the faces of officers and policemen on being presented with a tray of neat sih er biooches ' How meekly they marched back to barracks ' EASTER FESTIVITIES. Easter is coming fast, this year with sunny skies and fresh green fields, primroses and daffodils scenting our garden beds, and all the world looking so spick and span new that one feels gla 1 to be here to enjoy it. The sh ips are like flower beds, so gay are they with novelties for Punches-town — Punchestown being our vio B "t famous race-meeting of the year, and the novelties being t:ay dresses and trinkets for ladies*, fine everything for men that men love, from swell boots t > gold-mounted dressing ca'-es, jewelled cigar boxes, and field glasses. This year's noveltit s are gayer and more costly, and in greater profusion than ever, tor the Duke and Duchess of York are coming to Ireland for a fortnight and are to be at Punchestown, good weather permitting, so our prettiest thoroughfares will be at their gayest during Easter week, unless the Scotch and English blizzards travel over and bring us a white Faster to spoil sport and make the strangers grumble at our climate, a- they so often do, forgetting that nearly all our bad weather crosses over from England and Scotland, and the rest comes from Air erica. Were we left to our own Irish weather clerk, I do believe we shou.d have :s(;r< sunny days in the year, with gentle showers by night, just to keep the grass green and make the corn grow. — M. B.