Irish News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 36, 4 September 1902, Page 9

Irish News.

ANTRIM.— The Largest Steamer. The White Star liner Cedrio has been launched in Belfast. She ia the largest steamer in the world, being 700 ft long, 20,970 tons gross, and accommodates 3000 passengers. ARMAGH.— Bigotry Again. For unadulterated religious bigotry (writes a Dublin correspondent) it would be difficult to match the Protestant members of the Armagh Poor Law Board. At their last meeting the election of a nuree for the fever hospital was again under consideration. The voting lay between a Protestant lady who was unknown to them and a Catholio who for three months during a virulent outbreak of fever did temporary duty in the hospital, and did it so efficiently that on the recommendation of the medical officer the Guardians passed a special resolution complimenting her. Notwithstanding this, every Protestant Guardian present Toted against her, and the other applicant was elected. Visit of Cardinal Moran. His Eminence Cardinal Moran, accompanied by bis secretary, Very Rev. Dean O'Haran, arrived at Armagh on July 11, and proceeded to Ara Coeli, where they remained as guests of his Eminence Cardinal Logue for a few days. DUBLIN.— Anti-Treating League Speaking at Swords recently his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin said the Anti-Treat-ing League was one of the most promising organisations ever established in Ireland for the eradiotion of the evils of intemperance. Catholic Insurance Company. The capital of the Irish Catholic Church Property Insurance Co., Limited, amounting to £100,000, has been fully allotted by the directors. The number of shares applied for was greatly in excess of the capital. LIMERICK.— Death of a Priest. The death is announced of the Rev. Timothy Bourke, Kilteely, Limerick. Father Bourke was in his 52ud year, and had labored zealously as a priest for more than 25 years. Educated at Sc. Patrick's College, Thurlea, he was ordained by the late Archbishop Croke in 1877. Mis first years in the sacred minintry were spent in the diocese of Salford, and when calltd to his native archdiocese he was appointed curate, first to Gnrtnahoe, then to Killenaule, and for the last four years he labored faithfully in the parish of Kilteely. Charitable Bequests. The late Mr Henry M. Daly, of Wood field, Dromcollogher, bequeathed a field of his property beside the Catholic Church as a site for a convent, £500 to the building fund, and £100 a year in perpetuity to the nuns, chargeable on hia landed property at Boherbee, in the County Cork. He also bequeathed the rent of five houses and some freehold land to the poor of Dromcollogher, and for the propagation of the faith. ROSCOMMON.— The death has occurred at Roßcommon, at the age of 107 years, of an army pensioner named John O'Neill, who served under three crowned heads and drew a pension from the fourth. He was present at the taking of Sebautopol, and fought >n a great many of the battles in which he distinguished himself, as he was the possessor of several medals. Deceased was hale and hearty up to recently, when his health gave way, and he was obliged to seek admission to the local union hospital, where be ditd a few weeks since. Of late years he was connected with the local fife and drum band, which, under hia capable tutorship, was brought to a state of great perfection, he being a most skilful musician. SLlGO.— Compulsory Land Sale. The United Inth League has Bcored a striking victory in Sligo, where the large estate of Lord Lucan is about to come into the hands of peasant proprietors. At the

weekly meeting of the Westport Guardians and District Council recently Mr Michael O'Boyle proposed the following resolution : ' Resolved — That we, the Westport Board of Guardians and District Council, have learned with pleasure tbat the Congested Districts Board have at length been successful in completing negotiations regarding the purchase of the Lucan estate, whereby hundreds of families will be afforded an opportunity of becoming peasant proprietors of the land made fertile by the sweat of their fathers.' The chairman paid the action of the Congested Districts Board in purchasing those lands was a great victory, particularly for the members of the organisation which was the means of compelling the Government and the Congested Districts Board to do so. They were all aware of the clearances that were effected in '46 on the Lucan estate, the most horrible that were ever made in Ireland ; and from that up to the time the U.I.L. was started in the district there was not a single move made by any pereon to relieve the poor people who had been exiled, some of them out of the country, some of them into the workhouße to die in batches there. They should all feel that it was a great victory, and it would have been accomplished four or five years ago only for a certain number of graziers living in the district. These men came in from other districts, and took up the lands that belonged to the people. He hoped there would be a strong agitation to compel the Congested Districts Board to give these men the same terms as they had got from the landlord — namely, to put them out as eleven months' tenants, when their term was up, without any compensation. He hoped the Congested Districts Board would do this, and not paddle the incoming tenant with unnecessary purchase money. Those men never expended a penny on the land since they went into it, but took all the good out of it.

GENERAL.

Agricultural Society. The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society held its annual meeting at Cork recently, under the presidency of a diptinguished nobleman, Lord Monteagle. Mr Horace Plunkett made a long speech, and so did Father Finlay, S.J. Count Moore also took part in the proceedings. The Society called on the railway companies to give greater facilities aDd lowt j r ratew for the transit of cream and dairy produce. Mr Plunkett, in a speech, gave some particulars of the industrial development carried out in Ireland, and attempted to traverse certain statements of Mr John Dillon in which Mr Dillon asserted that much of the energy and enthunias>m of the Agricultural Organisation Society and of similar enterprises was due to a desire on the part of the Press to draw a red herring across the trail of Home Rule. Ex-New Zealander in the West. Some time ago we were informed by cable that Mr J. Cathcart Wason, the Unionist Member of Parliament for the Orkney and Shetland Islands, had withdrawn his support from the Government and joined the Liberals. We wonder if what he saw of the Land Question during a recent visit to the Weßt of Ireland had anything to do with his change of politics ? About the middle of July, accompanied by Mr Cullinan, M P., he pai'i a visit to the De Freyne and Dillon estates, and interviewed many of the tenants and inspected their cabins. He also visited the scene of the evictions, and expressed much sympathy with the poor people, whom he was surprised to see in such good cheer. Throughout the journey police on cars and bicycles, with a Government note-taker, accompanied the party Mr Wason expressed the feeling that there was no justification for delaying the settlement of the nyatpm which he witnessed, and said he would do all in hia power to attain that end. Compelled to Pay Up. The action brought by the Secretary of State for War againtt Major E W. Studdert and others for alleged fraudulent breach of contract in connection with the purchase of horses for Yeomanry serving in South

Africa was settled before the Vice-Chan-cellor. After an adjournment, at the oloße of the evidence for the plaintiff, the Solicitor General said a settlement had been arrived at on the terms that all further proceedings should terminate, judgment to be given for the plaintiff against Major Studdert, John Studdert, and Thomaß Studdert in the Bum of £2000 in respect of that portion of the statement of claim under which the plaintiff claimed relief against Major Studdert as agent and trustee, and in Jieu of all accounts thereunder, judgment against the same three defendants for costs, agreed at £1000 over the cost* • awarded by the House of lords, the action to be dismissed against the defendants Gregg and Fletcher, without costs. The consent was made a rule of Court. Police Shadowing. Whilst the vote for the Royal Irish Constabulary was under consideration reoently by the House of Commons, Mr T. W. Russell brought under the notice of membera the ' shadowing ' to which visitors to the West of Ireland were subjected. He said that four or five weeks previously he visited the West of Ireland, accompanied by the hon members for West Lanark and Oldham, Mr Douglas and Mr Alfred Immott. If he had gone alone he could have understood that Borne little attention would have been paid to him, for he was visiting one of the most dangerous parts of Ireland ; but, accompanied as he was by gentlemen of such spotless reputations as his companions, there could have been no suspicion with regard to the party But what happened ? He should like the Committee to understand what kind of thing life was in Ireland. In this case there were three members of the Imperial Parliament as loyal ami ju-t as peaceable a- the right hon. gentleman or uny Minister on the Treasury Bench They did not go to hold any meetings ; they did not go to stir up agitation— but simply for the purpose of eeeing- lor thc-mselvcs, if getting at the facts, and hearing what the people and the landloid him>elf had to say. What happenfd ? From the moment that they landed on the De Freyno Estate, and during the three days that they were there until they left by train at Caatlereagh, they were cont-tanUy shadowed by three or four policemen. Wherever they wmt on cars the police were after ihern on bicycles ; whereever they -topped, thty Mapped immediately behind them. It they went out into the streets to to friends, the police were on the spot eavebdroppmg. He wanted to know why thePH gentlemen, going to that part of the country on perfectly lawful and legitimate buhine-s, should be subjected to this earveil ance by the Irish police in that manner I The right hon. member for Dewsbury had rather more attention paid to him than even he (Mr Russell) had. He naked for no explanation for himself. He should not expect any other treatment. Nothing 1 Like Him. The London ' Observer,' Unionist organ though it is, is getting sick of the Orange lodges. It bayn : ' One wonderß how this curious spirit of OraDgeism manages to keep alive in the face of present-day views with * regard to religion. The Catholic is no less pious than he was a cjuple of centuries ago, but he is abundantly tolerant. The same may be Raid, in a sense, for the Presbyterian, and it may be said also for the Protestant ; but the Orangeman, whether he happens to be a Presbyterian or a Protestant, ia an extraordii ary exception to all rules. He has lived through the nineteenth century in vain— in fact, he lives in the penal days, and would, if he could, very probably re-enact the penal luws. Neither Englishmen nor fccotohmen can understand him, for there is nothing like him either in England or Scotland. 1 The De Freyne Estate. In connection with the oable news received last week that an eviction campaign had b6en commenced on the De Freyne estate, the following report of a visit to the district by Mr T. W. Russell and two Englißh Members of Parliament will be of interest. Mr Ruß>ell tells us of a call he and his friends wade on one of the tenantß :— The moderate Irish landlord, of course, has

a political economy all his own. Economists euoh as Mopes, Ricarrlo, and Mill count for nothing in his eyes. Rent is the fir^t charge on the land, so far i>e he is concerned, whether the tenant makes the rent out of the coil or gets it in New York or Chicago matters not. All that is detail with which he has no concern. This was the second case we investigated. The tenant held eight Irish acres. The 1881 rent was £9 ; the judicial rent was £6 10s He had just finishrd a barn and loft outside the house, and his live stock consisted of two cows, two calves and a donkey. Asked if Lord De Freyne had assisted in any way with timber, slates, or otherwise, the question caused some amusement. Such a thing was never heard of on the estate. The function of the landlord was confined solely and entirely to the oollection cf the rent twice a year. Eveiything else was left to the wretched peasants. Asked how he made the rent and kept himself and his family, the answer cume at once. He was too old now to go to England to work. Thtit was the invariable rule with the younger men. But he had six children — four at home and two girls in America. '• Do you hear regularly from the girls ?" I a^ed. "We do, sir," was the prompt reply. "And perhaps they nend you help?" I queried. "Indeed, they do: God bless them. I got as much as £20 in one year from them." "And this is the wr.y the rent is paid /" I suggested. " How else could it be paid ? " was the reply. I said nothing at the time. I desired that the facts should sink in the minds of my two Parliamentary colleagues, who were face to face with these things fwr the first time. I had seen ard heard it nil before. To me it was an oft-told ta'e. But I could not help thinking that the district wan swarming with pclice, that the elementary rights of the Conptitution were suspended, that some of the principal men of the country were in gaol— and all this in order that Lord De Freyne should get rent which the soil did not produce. The Constabulary Vote. When the vote for the Royal Irish Constabulary was under discussion in the Ilouse of Commons Mr John Dillon moved that the amount— £l,369,lßs— bo reduced by £500,000. In the oourpe of a scathing indictment of Dublin Castle methods Mr Dillon Baid the vote whowid a net increase over the expenditure of the previous year on a total force of 11,1'Jl men. An the outlet he desired to siy a few words by way of protest agaiuHt the constitution of what w is a militiry force maintained at a nionttrous coat out of the National Exchequer. It was an armed force not for thf> purpose of detec-t-ing or discovering crime. It was upheld mainly as a political force, and at an expei se far in excess of any police force proper. It was a force that was maintained in the interests of the Iriah landlords, and a larger sum than £100 000 was not necessary to maintain a pohca force in a count y like Ireland, with its reduced population and crimeless character of the people. If the Government were to pass a Compulsory Sale Land Act a very small police force indeed would be necessary, whereas lr«l,u d had the most costly and useless and insufficient force in Europe. Ihis question hai bfen brought before the Hout-e in Au:u«t, 1880, and on taut occasion Mr John Bright stated that the protect they made against the maintenance of such a large force wan justified so long as the Irinh constabulary were maintained on a basis bo for' ign to tnat upon which the police Wf-re supported and used in Englaud and Wales and in JSootlani. Twenty years had p^s^ed Binc^ then, and the I rich police had been increased in numbi rs and in cot-t sinu*' 1859-60. The cost of the Irish police was placed upon the Exchequer, became thi n the Insn landIt rds paid li.c rates. The cost ot the police »a« then £/00 o<>o. Now it was £l,:H)0,000, wdi.e the p ii ulatun had since b( en reduced from H,()W),"0(i to 4,luu 0< 0, and yet the cost of the force Ii id übour doubled hiuee 1859-60, when Sir Robert Pei 1 put the cost upon the taxation of the country. They found that in Ireland, of all civilised countries, the oost of the p )li' c was nu ra sing proportionataly to tho deere se of population. He wanted to impret-s this upon the House as strongly as he eouM What wis the explanation of that/ The explanation was that the business of the Irish police during the last

40 or 50 years had been the extermination of the Irish people, and the work upon which they were engaged had, of course, made the whole system of law so unpopular in Ireland that the Government felt it necessary to maintain this gigantic force in the country. The population of Ireland had decreased during the last 60 years by onehalf, and the cott of the Irish constabulary had doubled in that time. The cost per head of the police in Ireland this year and for many years past had been, roughly speaking, excluding Dublin, 7a per head of the population, while the cost in England, including the boroughe — which was not a fair basis of comparison with Ireland considering the fact that Ireland had mainly a rural population — the cost was something like 2d 4d per brad of the population and let that be berne in mind that crime in England was incomparably larger than in Ireland. The population of England, moreover, was largely urban and manufacturing, and would thus rt quire a much larger police force than a rural population such as Ireland contained He would also point out that whereas rural, peaceful, cnmeless Ireland had to pay 7s per head for their police force, Scotland had only to pay 2s 2d per head, In Great Britain, not taking the Metropolis, he found that there was one policeman to every 1,200 inhabitants, but in Ireland, outside Dublin, there was one policeman to every 250 of the population. In other words, there were five times as many policemen per head in Ireland as there were in Great Britain.