Sta&ng-Wersity and Strange " .'

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2365, 1 March 1893, Page 4

Sta&ng- Wersity and Strange " .'

THE WORKING mIn'SMILLENNIUM. It is said that " Variety is the spice of life," and that "it adds to its flavour." The poet (Insac Watts, or Cowper, we forget which) was not very far wrong when he penned this couplet, for certainly if c would be bat a dull monotonous thing were rb-nbt Fot its pleasing contrasts. In the anipaal wo^d we have the graceful and - any deer, end the bold* and ferocious lion, the- huge elephant,' and. diminutive though destructive mousey t"here is the plain, humbler-looking thrush, with its rich 80Dg, and the beautiful humming bird whose . mupical talents (and he has sense enough 1 to know it) are conspicuously absent j tlren there is ther monster' whale and the tiny shrimp on which it feeds. Whilst in mankind the contrasts are still 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 . In China and India, for instance, we believ.e, lying is a virtue — we won't say a ' raie virtue ; s whil6 among the Negroes of America chicken-stealing is considered one of , the favourite nootum&l pastimes, and perfectly praiseworthy, too— provided they " don't get caught in the act." in this country our tastes differ, and our ambitions carry us higher. We don't "believe there is-a single bank-teller in the whole of the country mean enough to ley violent hands on a poor unprotected fowl. As td. varying opinions on political matters, they are legion, everybody has an Opinion or 'some sort; some think that Ballance and-vhis party are the willing instruments of lihe evil one; others think them the only men capable of ushering in that era of unexampled prosperity termed by some enthusiasts the Working Men's Millennium; others, again, are loud in their praises of the author of the Public Works Policy, whilst others clamour for Sir Harry Atkinßon ; but one and all are unanimous in pronouncing Buchanan's House of Commons Whisky " the Purest and Best in the Market."