The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 290, 6 December 1889, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1889.

For tha causa that lacks assistance, For the -wrens * na *d s resistance, For tha firtnre in tho distance, Aad the good that we can do.

H-snry M. Stanley, the intrepid explorer, has reached Zanzibar, after softie two yekfs of ceaseless toil, anxtety, Sickness and danger in the wildest parts of equatorial Africa. He is stated to have "aged considerably," but the fact that he is to get for' his account of hi. adventures and exploratibfts will probably compensate for the loss of a few years : of life, and the presence of a few additional grey hairs.

Like mo.t ftier. Who have - pissed through manifold dangers and come out ; ah utiscathed, Mr Stahley is in A de- '■ vout mood (br & mood which is easily ''• hiistakeh for such), arid attributes his \ preservation to " Special Providence/ ; We have no wish tb detract in the ;. 'slightest degree from the high services ' rendered by Stanley to the cause of , civilisation, no less than to science, by this and previous journeys into the 1 heart of the Dark Cdritirient; but when it comes to claiming the assistance of a Providence specially retained on his behalf, it is about time to enter a smiling protest against such an assumption. Sooth to say, those people wHo, With mock humility or sham devotion, ascribe events in their experience to the interposition of a special P-OvideiJce, are, as a, rule, carried away by their own vanity. If it had beenthe Will of Providence to specially interpose for the deliverance of any man whose mission was one of philanthropic arid Christian effort dn behalf of the races of Central Africa, surely that man Was Gordon. The bare suggestion that the life Of the martyr of Khartoum who rode aldne into the strongholds of barbarism sitrjtply to elevate and civilise the people, and put down the accursed Slave trade, Was of less value in the sight df God that, the life of H. M. Stanley with his well-equipped warwaging party of. explorers and traders, is repugnant to our sense of the fitness of thihg-. Brave men Who enter tipori perilous undertakings in the cause of humanity, do not expect miraculous interpositions to save them from the dangers which are inseparable from their mission. In all times,, the soil frbrh which gloribds benefits to humanity have sprung has been watered with the blood of martyrs, preGious id the sight of God. If Henry j M. Stanley wert to be fadnesf,- he Would j J confess that his escapes have been due I

to perfectly natural causes, such as his iron constitution, his indomitable spirit, or his experience of African races, and his possession of superior weapons, forces and intelligence.

It is pleasing to learn that all the country passed through by Stanley was J not wild and inhospitable, but that there are vast tracts of well-watered land, which With the fertility of the climate ought to prove highly productive. Clearly Africa is the land of the future, and the publication of Stanley's book (quite apart from questions of special Providence—why not say inspiration ?) will be awaited with lively interest by the whole civilised world. In the excitement over the safety of Stanley and the value of his discoveries, the wodd has wellnigh lost sight of Emm Bey, whom Stanley went to rescue. No doubt Dr. Schnitzler (for that is Emm's real name) will have some interesting scientific facts to publish also with regard to his long residence in the wilds of Africa during those troublous times which proved fatal to his great leader at Khartoum.