LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
AN OBJECT-LESSON IN HOME-RULE. [To Tax EDIT= OF THY " SPzerAToR.1 Sr,—Those who have studied the problem of Ireland's poorm districts appreciate the difficulty the people have in drawing adequate subsistence from agriculture alone. Industries have therefore been established with the object of supplementing their scanty resources, and these have conferred vast benefits upon the people, and helped many a poor family to live in relative comfort and affluence. It is, there- fore, the duty of those who have any regard for the welfare or prosperity of their native land to do every- thing in their power to assist these industries. This is not, however, the opinion of the United Irish League, who have given us an admirable object-lesson of their hostility. to Irish industry within the last few weeks. It is now some ten years since a few boys began attending a wsod-carving class at Killarney House. As time went on the quality of the wood-carving and furniture turned out by "Lady Castle; rosse's School of Arts and Crafts" began to excite universal admiration. The expenditure rose from 222 15s. 8d. in 189] to 21,922 17e. Id. in 1899, and the value of the work sold, which was only 221 6s. 6d. in 1895, bad by the end of 1899 reached 21,222 7s 4d. Lady Castlerosse had also founded a School of Domestic Economy, where some twenty-- five girls were instructed in laundry, cooking, housewifery, and needlework. These tw-5 industries bad been Owed upon a sound and durable basis, and their striking progress fully; - justified those who wished to enlarge their scope and trans- form a flourishing industry into a Technical Institute where the dormant manual talent of County Kerry could be turned to a profitable account. Lord Kenmare was prepared to furnish the necessary land and buildings at a nominal rent. Lodgings were to be supplied at the lowest possible rate to those who came from afar. All that was required were funds suffi- cient to equip these schools with the requisite plant and machinery, and to pay the best teachers that were available. The County Council had been empowered by the Local Govern- ment Act to strike a rate of a penny in the pound over the whole county. Lady Castlerosse therefore asked them for a vote of 2300. as she had been assured that if only she could obtain this assistance locally, the Department of Agriculture were prepared to give her 2604, whilst the National Education Board were prepared to supplement this vote with 2300 more. In short, if the local representatives were ready to tax themselves to the extent of a farthing in the pound, their county would obtain from outside a grant three times as large as what they supplied themselves. The Coin- mittee of the County Council had already on August 23rd voted the 2300, and this vote had to be confirmed to secure the outside help. Then it was that the United Irish League resolved to interfere. On November lath the Killarney Echo advised the Committee of the County Council to disregard certain aristocratic influences that had been brought to bear upon it. Mr. John Murphy, M.P., addressed a meeting of the United Irish League on December 2nd, and accused those who supported the proposal of wishing to be made J.P.'s and D.L.'s. "The cause of Ireland," he said, "was indestructible and should go onward, and in order that it should not be impeded such people should be made to understand that they cannot keep the confidence of the people if they use the positions in which the people placed them to become tuft-hunters and shoneens." At the meet- ing of the Killarney Board of Guardians reported in the Killarney Echo of December 29th, a local District Coun- cillor said: "We would be wanting in our duty as Nationalists if we did not show Lady Castlerosse we should not give her the sympathy we would desire to give a lady of her rank." When the Kerry County Council met -on January 14th the Very Rev. Dean Carmody, P.P., V.G., the Rev. Canon O'Riordan, P.P., Kingwill nstown, and the Rev. Canon O'Leary, P.P., Dingle, though not members them- selves, attended to protest against the grant being made. The County Council consequently reduced the vote from .C300 to 241, and the outside contribution of 2904 was thus lost to County Kerry. I am aware that one argument was advanced. It was alleged that the convents scattered through-
oat the county had a claim to share in this grant. Captain Shaw, however, who attended the County Council meeting as the representative of the Department, strongly deprecated any attempt at splitting up the grant amongst institutions that would only repeat one another's work. It is such objeat- lessons as these that induce patriotic Irishmen to subscribe
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