The Bumble Policy

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 3, 17 January 1907, Page 10

The Bumble Policy

Lord Dunraven once said, something to this .effect : ' There are forty Boards in Dublin Castle. One half of them exist to clean " the outside of the' windows of Dublin Castle; l^ie^o^her hall exist., to 1 clean the inside of the windows ofJDublin. Castle. But those that clean the outside work at one time, and those that clean the inside work at a different time ;" and the result is that the windows of Dublin Castle are never clean '. .....*- Whioh things are, of course, written for- an allegory. m In a recent issue of London ' Truth ', Mr. Laboucherc pokes the following gentle sarcasm at the forty and more bureaus of independent petty oligarchs that rule tha^hapless country : ' A modern Goldsmith might Avrite of Ireland, after its long spell of Conservative Government, as a land " where Boards accumulate and men decay ,." Ijf Dublin -is not a "deserted "- ~ capital, ils leading residential squares. and streets are declining in social popularity. . . The salaried officials swamp both town and country, increasing yearly, whilst ihe population decreases, lr'ela'nd has a strange past history, but its future one will beat '^he record, if things go on as at present. The great La-hd Department will have no one to give the "land to X the Boards will supply an army of teachers without "pupils, the members of Parliament will" have 710 ", constituents, and yet no doubt the Irish question will still remain. The Irish -themselves have, their own- opinion on the lasting nature of the Irish question/ The country has always been ruled on the principles of the great Bumble towards" those under his dominion. They *do not ask, for more Boards, and they get them, nor for Royal Commissions, and they get them. The things that they ask •

for, under the reasonable idea that they have the best knowledge of their own -needs, are never given. Supposing the Bumble policy were reversed, might not the .. nature of^-fche Irish question change too ? It would"at,least be worth a trial.' There can be no manner of doubt as to what the , people ask. • Connaught, Munstcr, and Leinster ', said •Mr Donovan in Dunedin on last Thursday evening, 'are solid in favor of Home- Rule. The-' -majority.-' of - the Members of Parliament for Ulster are in favor of Home, Rule., Eighty-five" out of the country's one' hundred and three - representatives are in favor of Home -Rule. This leaves eighteen standing out. Of the eighteen, two are mere nominees, representiifg^Trinity College^ , Of the sixteen that remain, four (Russell, Sloan, Glcndinning, and, I think, -Mitchell) are Independents, -who would not touch the •' official party /with a forty-foot pole. This leaves,- twelve 'irreconcilable^. And eight out of the twelve, "in the last 'Tory Parliament, drew Government salaries ranging -from , £2000 to £10,000 a year. .It is easy- to be " loyal " on .£2OOO to £10,000 a -year '. . __