ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

New Zealand Tablet, 25 April 1918, Page 13

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

B.J.D. (Napier).(l) Free railway passes free places, •; limited in number, may be-taken out in Catholic secondary schools; University leaving certificates v: may be won by Catholics. (2) We are not only - supporting our own schools but- we are taxed for the upkeep of schools which we condemn as unfit for Christian children. Our just demand is that we be allowed financial support at least equivalent to the amount of which we are now robbed by unjust taxation. (3) The estimated cost of education is about £l2 a head. - Taking this as a basis we are expending, roughly, £BO,OOO a year, or, rather, saving that sum to a Government which robs us. (4) Your hint will receive our most favorable consideration.

O’H. (Towai).For the text of the Bill consult a British Hansard in any public library. The following points may be noted: (1) The power of the British Parliament over Ireland was not diminished by the Bill. At any time it would have been in the power of England to impose a tax on Ireland in defiance of the Irish Parliament. Any Act passed by the Irish Parliament could be declared void by the British. The British Parliament withheld from the Irish the right to collect Irish taxes. The revenue collected in Ireland was to be paid into the British Treasury, and . it was to be decided by Britain how much Ireland was to get of her own money. The Irish Parliament was to have no power to legislate regarding the Crown, peace, and war, the army and navy, and was forbidden to raise a territorial force, to make quarantine laws, to exercise any control over her own tidal waters', or her own lighthouses. From this you will see why the Bill was at once declared a bankrupt scheme by the Bishop of Limerick, whom, to give it its due, the Irish Tunes supported in that view. It was absolutely worthless, and we may thank God now that Ireland was'saved from such a piece of scheming. W.F.M. (Wellington).—We agree with you. If instead of being paid £4OO a year every member of Parliament was compelled to pay as much for the privilege of becoming cue of the spouting men of New Zealand it could not be said as it is at present that our representatives have no other aim than to get in and to stay in a soft job for which they are too well paid. The following letter, which appeared in the Dunedin Evening Star, is apposite: —• POLITICAL CONSCRIPTION. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I take the earliest opportunity of congratulating the 43 members of Parliament who have set us such an.excellent example by politically conscripting themselves at salaries varying from £4OO to £IOOO per annum. I am thinking about electing myself a member of Parliament. In the event of my doing so, could any exception be taken to my taking my seat in Parliament and drawing my salary as an M.P., seeing that my election would be on lines identical with that of the other members?—l am, etc.,

M. McAllen.

April 16.

W.K. (Milton). —Many thanks for enclosed cutting. In those days there was evidently an honest man at the helm. Now, in our opinion, although he may possibly be honest, ,we cannot think so unless we admit that he is exceedingly unfit for his job. But still the British Government condemned Orangeism in that remote period while the memory of the Orange attempts to keep Queen Victoria from the throne - were still fresh in everybody’s mind. At present the same Government is ruled from Ulster. We think it quite likely, arguing from analogy\ that the ruffian Colthurst will be made Commander-in-Chief now. Probably you

noticed that the disgraced Gough was ‘ the ' hero who led ' the ; mutiny on the Curragh by. refusing to fight. against. Orangemen. Apparently he dislikes fighting Germans also ! He ought to be able to run fast after his Curragh training. We are a great people but we want a rest badly.