The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14573, 23 May 1911, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1911.

So much has been written by way of anticipation, in our colCabriel'S Cully, urnns ami elsewhere, eißicerning the Jubiloo of the inception of goldmining in Otago that we need add little beyond a. word of heartfelt congratulation as regards both the significance of the commemorative festival and the complete success of the celebrations, which commenced at Lawrence yesterday. To many minds the pathos of th» occasion will be its most arresting, most compelling feature; and, certainly, tears may fitly mingle with the smiles which greet the eurviving veterans of the "roaring sixties" as the mind ponders the vicissitudes of fifty veal's and recalls the many gallant souls who have crossed the Great Divide* What a medley of thronging, conflicting, almost overwhelming thoughts and memories must have pressed upon the minds of these brave old diggers who marched in procession through the streets of the little goldfiekls town -gjagfcjjf afjernooii! Wo think (mutatis

mutandis) of words spoken by John Bright at Birmingham in 1859 concerning tho survivors of the first Reform agitation : The strong men of that limo arc now whito with ago. They approach the confines of their mortal day. Its ovcuiing iis cheered by the remembrance of thai, great struggle. . . . Shall their sons be let's noble than they? Shall the lire which they kindled be cxtinguiched with you? 1 fits your answer in every face. You are rtfolvtd that the legacy which they bequeathed to yon you will hand down in an accumulated wealth of freedom to your descendants. There are faJutarv Uveitis which tho young generation of today might, well learn from the records of the diggers of '6l— and from the faces- and beaming and indomitable spirit of many of the tirnev.oru veteiaiiis who have fuio,gafheiTd, ''revolving many memories." at Lawrence during the last day or two. Are these negative warnings, as well as positive lessors, to be beetled '.' Perhaps fo. for the adventurers of fifty years ago had a full share of human imperfections, and may. as a das', have had some special faults and foibles : but it is their virtues and attractions that naturally stand out. 'most prominently in this glad, t-ad hour of Jubilee—their hardy endurance, their blithe courage, their tenacity of purpose, their keen ssemo of comridrehip, their fine independence of bearing and 'outlook, their clear recognition that "a man's a man for a-' that." As Mr James Allen said yesterday : In years still to be .spent such a gathering must have an inspiriting effect on the whole community. If all showed the same pluck and determination as the miners did. and this spirit became general, there was no fear for the future* of Now Zealand, and nothing could stop it from going ahead. Our country was worth inch devotiuu. IWe question whether in the hbtory of Now Zealand there has been any spectacle, any festival, any high commemorative occasion more impressive, more provocative of romantic and pathetic meditation—more suggestive of " the Vii'gilian cry, The sense of tears in mortal things"— than the present reunion in the memoryhaunted Tuapcka town. A modern Ulyss-es (again mutatis mutandis) might address those trusty veterans of the golden prime : " My mariners. Souls, that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me— That even with a frolic, welcome took The thunder and the stuishine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old : Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. Tno' much is taken, much abides, and tho' We aro not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we a.re, wo are ; One equal temper of heroic hearts, .Made weak by time and fate, but strong ill Will To strive, to seek, to find, ami not to yield." God 1m? with them ail—brave old bodies a.nd souls!—and let the .Railway Department lose no time, m granting the very reasonable request for a small extension of the railway con-cession?, to that the veterans ins.y linger for a. little while among tho unforgotten scenes of more strenuous, years.