OUR IRISH LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 49, 5 December 1907, Page 27

OUR IRISH LETTER

(From our own correspondent.) Dublin, October, 1907.

( The long-looked-for 'Irish International Exhibition has come and nearly gone. It has been a mixed pleasure. The buildings- and grounds are extensive and handsome, and the show- has given a vast deal " of amusement to thousands of people during the summer. But these are the gay thousands who have no interest in the profit and loss part of the business, who enjoy fluttering round pretty toys and showing off bright toilettes, and meeting friends at dinners and teas while bands play and merry gossip keeps time to the music. But as a great international exhibition of all that is rare and v beautiful in home and foreign countries, as an educational undertaking, or as a financial helpinghand to Ireland, it has been a failure. A failure foreseen by those who best understood two things, namely, the needs of Ireland, and what .is meant by an internaitiional exhibition. .The former, an -undertaking that would help- Ireland, is sirr'ple enough and could •easily have been managed on a comparatively small and paying scale. This country wants a handsome and central -showroom at home for all her own products, a showroom In which: these > products— which are still many and varied— could be displayed so advantageously and so enticingly fcha't they- -would induce us all to keep f our money in the country, where it. is so badly needed, and would also induce buyers from other nations to deal with us, which many could do with profit to themselves. Very * pretty buildings could have been erected, sufficient for this purpose and at a tithe of the cost of the extensive, scattered, and half-empty halls erected at heavy outlay and only for six months. On the other hand, an international exhibition means a really grand and wonderful gathering together of all that is rare, beautiful, and costly to produce and transport ;• an impossibility for a country geographically situated as Ireland is. Then, we have always two strongly antagonistic parties here : -the Irish Nationalists who, though perhaps not always wisely so, are all heartily anxious to help whatever movement is for the real prosperity of - the country and her people, and amongst these all who come of alien blood or who differ from us in religion would be counted would they only be honest friends to the land and to its own Catholic people. But here is the great difficulty. Those accustomed to maintain an ascendancy by keeping all the loaves and fishes to themselves will not hear of a +"L ce + to all and n0 favor : i* is only necessary that any project should be recommended by the Party called Nationalists, oi -Home Rulers— who - are sinrply those who believe that Irishmen could manage their own household for themselves— to have that project" condemned as dangerous. So, as the Nationalises wished to -hold a purely Irish exhibition in 1907^ the ascendancy party insisted upon an international show. That was not enough: trade was bad and hundreds .of workmen idle, yet the contract for extravagantly large buildings was given out of the country, strange tradesmen brought in to carry out ' the contract, and even the catering given to London, a serious loss during a long summer, and a course of action that would nave, and rightly so, given rise to disturbances in England could Englishmen have been guilty of such disloyalty to their own starving tradesmen under similar circumstances.

As might-, he expected, foreign exhibits were few and poor ; British eqvally scarce and poor ; Ireland had ~ been cold-shouldered and did badly, with the exception- of- =rlocal shopkeepers and lace exhibits from convents ;_ the.- cost of construction and maintenance was greater: than could be counterbalanced by the influx of visitors, and so, although .the King and Queen- did come over and graciously 'visit and admire, the general voice of all parties now proclaims failure. There was even a story current amongst non-Catholics to the effect that the King and Queen were displeased to find almost empty nuildings and grounds when they paid their visit, but Ido not vouch for this. I know that if it be true, it is not that their Majesties are not personally popular in Dublin, for they are, but that the managing committee bungled tKat business as well as man J <>*her matters. Instead of doing what they could to have a gathering of those the Royal Family would 'best like to see, the people, the committee strove to turn the King and Queen into a morieymakmg show, raised the entrance price during the Royal

visit to a prohibitive rate for the masses, and 'hence the half-empty halls that, people say, -chilled and pained' their Majesties who, as I have said; are personal . favorites with the ' Irish. As a. passing - remark,- since he-came^ to the throne,' the King has not looked- so', well or so young as he did this year. ' _: New. Zealand and Canada. "~ ' - have good departments ' in the" exhibition as advertisements for > emigration agents. New Zealand shows "her beautiful native timbers for rough and line use ; fc her ' wool,- cloths, ■ blankets, hemp, etc. ; her butter ' andcheese ; her freezing apparatus and frozen meat, " and' many other important products, besides supplying much' nrghly interesting information on all possible subjects.: All 'this; information is compiled in. London at the emigration offices and issued by his Majesty's StationeryOffice. A note on the . co-ver of one of these books states that these most attractive inducements to the' youth of our soxely drained country to quit it are ex-, lubited at, and may be had -free of charge fronr imacS* than 1000 public libraries, Urban District Councils,' and" institutions. So full and minute is all this liopefurinlormation given that we even learn that we may^rine' out our bicycles free to New Zealand. Now;- there' are some very heavy drains on our population,' steadily sapping the life of .the nation year by year. One of these is the absolute plague of consumption that, seems to have seized on the poorer classes almost as the sleeping sickness has seized >pon the natives of a part of Africa. Twelve thousand died -of the disease, in, one form or another, last year,, and the malady is on • the increase. You will say, what 'has this to" do with a Wew Zealand department in the Dublin Exhibition? Much. Various causes of the spread of consumption are put forward by alarmed clergy and medical menf Some of these causes have oeen in existence for centuries during which Ireland produced men and women of perhaps the finest physique in the world : poor food, poor clothing bad housing, yet what may be called the epidemic of consumption is a recent thing. But otie-verv strong reason was lately put forward by inquirers into of aSfni 61 "' if! th t fc Cause is the const ant emigration ™d f™ i t tn^ stron S> s o un <l youth of Ireland, male and female Is it strange that, in face of this sad sad state of things, many should look with a jealous eye at the throngs of young men and women, mostly ?L £ c ?.T* an * A class > wh ° stand gazing eagerly at < zveeTwu p f tures e f nted to thim of lS? in those JiS i *? a T ay ■ Ca i^da is especially represented by an almost endless series of sunny pictures £f *£fu' fa n m + SCen6S ' Sm 'S vJt Eds of ht oH-fi -'i a - J^spai-encies so' arranged and lighted N Y n ™? ial V ght v hat ' the sun sllines alwa ys there > No mentwn of a life of ghastly isolation ; of eight s summer h 'iT ear ° f dee P' passable snoV. No.TII is summei, all is .sunny, all is sociability in thesp charming pictures ; you- almost hear the soni o f tte &i, mIU ? al f S - -T hY > in ' tM& O^ada fn Iretod hnn.l Sf a J°Z ely pl 7 cture ' aII in butte r : trees of butter tei L°r t,H "IS? 11 wreat h«d in climbing roses of bufc wild f bul f CupS sprinkle the meadows-oh ! it 7c ? oil to StT^ 1 " / OU^ moUth and you want to go on to 'that land of milk and honey right away wlmt mSht hJw g M pe ° P l e ' Who love to -think -of 5Sy Trom th P ?K ?***' - tlirn from " a11 ' and cs P e ~ panfat Teart thlOng ° f SaZlng peaSants ' with a *™ exhibators tell us they have done little 7 oHo businST guarantors Let us hope not, for few of them could afford to lose rnuch.^ A project is on foot to keep on the exhibition for another year. The scheme is started by a syndicate of new men who hope,. the buildiLs beinc fhfd d J-fT d + f' t0 m f c a sufficj ent sum to p g ay in e thet Cl ow°n poclS^ » «ood Urplus A Public Park. ' ' - Before leaving the subject of the exhibition, I ma? remark that the extensive and now prettily laid-out grounds are a gift to the citizens and arc -to be kept up as a public park. The giver is Lord Pembroke, the wealthy lord of the soil, the richest township in Dublin The park is. called Herbert Park.from the family name of the Pembrokes. The history of this township is a curious one and when you have heard it you will say that, the owner may well give a corner of it to the citi-

zens. I have not at hand the date of the. occurrence, but it took place perhaps three generations ago, in, days when there was^no such thing as an Irish Catholic in any civic body, Catholics were heavily taxed for. all public matters, for the mere. fact of tbeing Catholics, even for the support of the Protestant Clergy. It was the cruel exactions of the latter tax that-,gave rise to what were known as the tithe wars. The Dublin Corporation of the time was a body of Protestant gentlemen who carried a 'high liand in dealing with corporation estates, the revenues from which should of right do if jiot all, at least a gjreat part of the city works. Amongst these estates was a large tract of land south of the city, now. known as the Pembroke Township ; an extensive suburb inhabited by the wealthiest citizens and bringing in a princely revenue to ' the Earl of Pembroke. It "is a matter of history that, in those times of which I have spoken, this ,»was all in the hands 'of the Corporation as" trustees for the people of Dublin. The Pembroke of the time desired to annex this large suburb which adjoined some lands- he already possessed somewhat off the highway. Negotiations were entered into for a short lease of the land for 99 years ; a certain numiber of the City Fathers were invited to meet the Earl ;t; t all matters were arranged, the lease, with the term of 99 years, read over, and nothing reu'ained to "be done but to sign the lease. However, an adjournment for luncheon took place before signing ; champagne flowed, all was good fellowship, and,., after a prolonged coijvivial sitting, the honoured civic dignitaries and the lessee affixed signatures without repeating the formula of , reading over again such >an important paper. It was found next day that the lands had been assigned over for 999 years, practically for everi .