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Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 8258, 26 December 1911, Page 6

4 fbrUAttDiAi." . l December 26, 1911. "Yule," the name given by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors to the festival of Christmas-tide, is reminiscent of the .'ancient worship of the sun, being associated with the rites appropriate to the winter solstice. The word is allied to the Gothic and Scandinavian *'.wheel," and has reference to the "turning" of the year. The idea is most appropriate to general conditions at this, particular Yule-tide, when everything seems in a state of change, and any turn that takes place can hardly fail to be a turn for the iietter. Take the weather, for instance. It is some time since we had a Christmas Day so dismal and depressing as that of yesterday—the culmination of a particularly wet and 'changeful spring. Only a community of Mark Tapleys could be jolly under such meteorological conditions. Then, take the political world, and we find things nearly- as bad as they could possibly bo. In Great Britain, politicians are preparing for a tremendous battle, in which Home Rule for Ireland and votes for women are 1 going to be tossed about in the indiscriminate melee. - In Germany general elections are pending that may demonstrate the strength of Socialism in that country. Several of 'the Australian States arc verging on political chaos —what with deadlocks and personalities and the problem of how to get rid of an objectionable Speaker. Our own Dominion has not for twenty years known such a. condition of political, confusion as now prevails. The turning year may see the turning out of the Liberal Party, and Hive a "turn" to the so-called Reform Party. If we turn to the labour world we. find things very much unsettled, with ' 30,000 " strikers" rioting in .Dundoc, with 100,000 Lancashire mill operators "locked out," with British . miners contemplating a general strike, and with the army of railway workers still dissatisfied and threatening a repetition of the recent disastrous strike. Happjly our Dominion remains comparatively free from labour troubles, nnd even Australia is fairly quiescent in this respect. But the world at large is very much perturbed, and it would seem to be a refinement of cruelty to wish it "A Happy New Year." Hope, however, springs eternal in the human breast, and we may ,be allowed, to indulge in the anticipation that the turning of the Yule-tide season will bring about, an improved condition and a more ■ promir-ing outlook for all the peoples or the earth. The settlement of the Dundee strike is a happy augury, but as against this we have to-day news of a threatened general strike of British dock labourers.