TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION. THE DISAPPOINTED.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 548, 28 June 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION. THE DISAPPOINTED.

The folly of leaving the loved one behind, while we seek at the Antipodes a position of independence, in the hopes of securing a home worthy of the object of onr affection (says a writer in the Auckland Herald), has been fraught with so many disastrous circumstances that, as a warning to those who hesitate to gather the roses as they go, I will relate one of the many occurrences that took place during my residence in one of the sonthern settlements of this North Island. Some time in the year 1865 a respectable yonng mechanio from the North of Scotland arrived in New Zealand, whose industry proved to the observant that he had some other object in view besides self that kept him continually plodding on. And, although for some considerable time his gains were small, yet, by continued industry, he was enabled, towards the end of the sixth year, to send home a sufficient sum of money to bring out to the country of his adoption the young girl he had toiled for so long. And, during the next six months, he was seen building and rendering comfortable the house he was preparing for his expectant bride. When the letter arrived in England it was received with joy, but circumstances had arisen which rendered his request difficult to be complied with, for, in the meantime, her father had died, and she was now the sole support of her aged mother ; and, much as she longed to go, her duties as a child and love for her parent rose superior to her affections for her lover, and she wrote back to say that she oould not leave her mother while alive, and, as she might yet live many years, she called upon him to forget her, although her love for him was as un* dying as ever. When he received her answer, all hope of ever seeing her again fled, and, considering her reply final, he, having prepared everything to make home comfortable, soon after proposed to and married a respectable colonial girl, resident in the township. Within a few weeks of despatching her letter, her mother took ill and died, and she took her passage out to New Zealand by the next vessel, placing herself under the protection of a Presbyterian minister and his family, who were leaving for the same settlement. The voyage waa unusually short and prosperous. And I can conceive the happiness of such a one, satisfied in having done her duty to her parent, now about to be rewarded with the love and protection of the only one she cared for on this earth. When the vessel touched the shore* of New Zealand she was a bright, handsome girl, with joy depicted in every feature, but ere the sun had gone down she had learned the truth, and a despair, such as I had never seen, had settled upon her. ' She continued for a time to reside with the minister's family, but nothing he could say or do could rally or remove the melancholy that beset her, and, thinking that a change would help to cast off the gloom that was blighting her existence, he advised her to get a situation, and try and forget her great disappointment. Following his advice, she left his house that evening and took lodgings in the township, j and, when the sun rose again next morning, she was found to have cast off the j cares, anxieties, and disappointments of ' this world — and let ub hopo and pray — for a better and a happier, for during the night, in her great despair, she had taken the life God had given her.