Striking Diversity and Strange Unanimity.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2339, 31 January 1893, Page 3

Striking Diversity and Strange Unanimity.

THE WOBKING MAN'S MILLENNIUM.

It ii said that •• Variety is the spice of life," and that "it adds to ita flavour.' The poet (Insac Watts, or Cowper, we forget which) was not very far wronsr when he penned this couplet, for certainly ife would be but a dull monotonous thine were it not for its pleasinjr contrasts. In the animal world we have the graceful and ■by deer, and the bold and ferocious lion, the huge elephant, and diminutive though destructive mouse; there is the plain, humble-looking thrush, with its rich sod?, and foe beautiful humming bird wbose muaioal talents (and he has sense enough to know it) are conspicuously absen!;; tlren there iB the monster whale and the tiny •blimp on which it foods. Whilst in mankind the contrasts are al'll more marked and numerous, for not only are their •• physical features," so to speak, different, but they differ intellectually and morally also. In some countries certain acts are considered dishonourable and even criminal, and in others the same acts would be looked upon as ligitimate and onourable Id Cbina and India, for mßtance, we believe, lying is a virtue— we won't say a raie virtre ; while among the Nejjroes of America ohickenatealing is considered one of the favourite noaturnol pastimes, and perfectly praiseworthy, too— provided they " don't get caught in the act." In thii country our taßtes differ, and our ambitions carry ns higher. We don't believe there is a single bank-teller in the whole of the country mean enough to lry violent hands on a poor unprotected fowl. At td varying opinions on political matters, they are legion, everybody has an opinion of some sort; some think that Ballance and his party are the willing instruments of the evil one ; otherß think them the only men capable of üßhering in that era of unexampled prosperity termed by tome enthusiasts the Working Men'B Millennium; others, again, are loud in their praises of the author of the Public Works Policy, whilst others clamour for Sir Harry Atkinson ; but one and all are unanimous in pronouncing Buchanan's House of Commons Whißky "the Purest and Bett in the Market."