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Notes

£4000 for Ireland In the old legend, when Brother Date (' Give ') was thrust out of the monastery,' Brother Dabitur ('lt-will-be-given-to-yon') "followed, "soon of his own accoml.In New Zealand, Brother Date" dispenses largess' with a generous hand to every good cause that needs assistance, "agsainst every wrong that needs resistance.' Despite the unfavorable season- of the " annual holiday making, the Irish "' Delegates had, a week ago, received from generous^friends and sympathisers, ' after a very brief leciAiring' period, the sum of £4000 for the furtherance of 'the causei of self-government for " the Green" Isle. And -it is anticipated' that New Zealand's bounty ' towards Home Rule will" amount to' about £5000. Where Brother' Date '(that is, the kindly and. fair-minded' spirit' of our people)' has been so open-handed, we trust that Brother Dabitur (the kindly Providence that watches over' our land) will 1 continue to pour His gifts in. full and flowing measure upon our' shores. With, nations, as with" individuals; the bread cas-t upon the" 'running waters comes baoi again, sometimes in the long run, sometimes

ill the short. Home Rule . ' * The - argument for Home Rule,' says the Dublin ' Weekly. "Freeman ', quoting Isaac Butt, I '- to fee- drawn from Canada was a strong one. In 1839 Canada was with difficulty held by force of arms for the " British

Crown. Canada , was. , in, open rebellion. The. experiment'was tried of giving/ Canada Home "Rule. It. has "" not disintegrated the Empire. ~ Canada toad -two," Provinces, differing in race, religion, in language,- and.-, in law. Lower Canada contained , a gjreat, French population, hostile to England, -alienated'. from, her by-memories of recent conquest,-' and. Catholic in:,thejLf Religion. Upper Canada, was, peopled- chiefly, by ;, English. Pratestant "settlers, by Puritans, from Sco;tland, and-"lrish;-Orange-men from the Barm; Hon>e Rule,, was ;" granted to Cana/da. Proivinces that seamed ajrayed-^^giyjq^t .e^ch other" in hopeless antagonism- and v discord.. " ; are^.nflw united, together. The "French -Catholics of.Lo.w.er^C2in^a and; the ..English .Puri tans . and: 1 Irish Or ajigemen of - UpjJjpr Canada riieet; in .,- one -Earliameatvlo.- sery,e rth^.intere's ts'.of a, common-^ country.! *■- ',"•"■ - - ' '•'- ''>•!-- The Earthquake . " - -rIn - tlie matter of -big earthquakes, the year' 1 1906 has been (say the experts) very much^ below the record of its next predecessor, 1905. But in 1905, v the first-class quakes carried on, - their rough horse-play, in desert- lone and mountain-range,' where -they 'had 'room and verge enough *f or " their wild romps without trampling the souls out^ of human beings to any great extent. They were, by comparison, very -low horse-power .shakes that tossed and- cracked and . crumpled- the. handicraft of man in San -Francisco, Valparaiso, and (during the past week), at Kingston in Jamaica. A shell that -bursts in open and untenanted ground merely pock-marks-the-sur-face. . Y But we know 'What j-eyen; the, \ old blacky© w.der Prussian shells did v among the close-packed masses French troops that were crammed and .jammed into the streets of Sedan on that fateful September evening in 187" O. And in like manner even a third-class earthquake can do first-class, damage when, like an underground Samson, it "seizes and- shakes whatever comes within the reach of- its blind rage in. close-packed centres of population.

The people of Jamaica have not acquired^ J,hat ( easy^g? familiarity with earthquakes which makes of 5 Manila .so placid- and- phlegmatic over , their, oft-recurring shocks. Jamaicans are rather prone to asspciate-i.sgism.ic troubles with _ the ruin that, came to. their, -island^in 1780' and ,1-6921" ' A devastating "hurricane, a., sejsjxiic wave, and fire added to the horrors of' 'the- quake"' of 1780. 'Plunder, famine, and. pestilence ,fol|o wed. . Becjcford in his .' Account of Jamaica ' tells how the plague was 'of so malignant 'a. nature that: death' of ten^cutroff the victims' careers within an hour of the first attack. As many as 4326 of " the wretched inhabitants' miserably perished— soul and body- severed "amidst the, swift agony * of falling trees or • masonfy-'or plague;' or the _ slower tortures of sheen hunger ; and property was damaged to the extent, of £1;320,000. -- " "'' " ''• f ' .' ' /;' Far more terrible, was the,'.e9.rtb,qHake;;jof . J..jMife-> 7, 1692. It was called "' The Great Earthquake^, H and; m,arks an epoch in the history of Jamaican-like 'the five ' in Scotland. and (in a smaller ,w;ay),', the. J>jghs pf the big\ wind by the ingle-noolis of Ireland/ Gardner, for instance, in his- ' History • of -Jamaica- '- (London, 1873) divides -the 'Periods J. of the, island's history as follows : I.— Discovery ;. ll.^From /the- Conquest.. by,, the English' to the Great , Earthquake (1692) ; lll.— From the Earthquake to the Commencement of the Antislavery struggle (17<82). And" so on. The noontide stillness of a glowing day,in-1692 was ' broken^ by a noise. Then came a series of shpqks> crashed," collapsed, or was riven, intolsmithers ; part of the city dipped beneath a mighty seismic wave that came thundering in ; and ships were lliiiig" like corks over the sunken ruins. The earth opened and swallowed- people alive. in some places the -dead were only, ([ Raptially buried, .and the pariah- dogs *came and feasted upon them. ' The horrors of the event,' says Gardner, 'were

-intensified 'by "the mysterious, awful sounds that one moment appeared to :be- in- the- air,, and then- iri the ground.' -And the pestilence that ensued was hardly 'less' deadly -^than the" 'e&r'thqUake I . ' *""" The "author last quoted . tells' <f>f a' curious. r hair-breadth escape which' remindsi us of fan of 1798,. of whom a popular rhyming'couplet used 1 to say in 'distant Wcxford that he was ' ' „ '.' ' ' Shot and kilt on Vinegar Hill,- . ; ''. , Dead and. buried, and' alive still.' . . * l ' Its' record,' says the historian of Jamaica, ' still" remains at Green Bay ,^.to__the, westward,, of Port Royal, on the- opposite shore." There lies the body of~ Lewis Galdy, who died, on .the r 22nd of December ,^l739 r fortyseven years afte'r/jbhe-'.eafthquake^eightyr' years of " age. He was a native of Mowbpellier in France, '■but, beinga Protestant, had left that country and sought a home in : Jamaica. The inscription on his tomb tells that he was swallowed up .by the earthquake, then by another shock cast into the se£, w.here he escaped, /by swimming",, to a boat. After this,' Gardner adds, 'he flourished ■ as a merchant in Port Royal, represented four parishes in successive assemblies,' and seems to have - been gener- . ally loved arid respected. ' - ' . „' But in Jamaica's greatest earthquake, this early . Jules Verne went through sufficiently thrilling adventores to fill "the ambition of a private man. -"

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZT19070124.2.46

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 22

Word Count
1,053

Notes New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 22

Notes New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 22