Striking Diversity and Strange Unanimity.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2383, 22 March 1893, Page 4

Striking Diversity and Strange Unanimity.

THE WOE^ING MAN'S MILLENNIUM. It is said that " Variety is the spice of life,' 1 and that "it adds to its- flavour." The poet (Issac Watts, or Cowper, we forget which) was not very fat vftong when he penned this couplet, for ceitainly ife would he bat a dull monotonous thing were it not for its pleasing contrasts. In the animal world we have the graceful and | shy 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 soup, and the beautiful humming bird whose musical talents (and he has sense enough to know it) are conspicuously absent ; tten there is the monster whale and the tiny shrimp on which it feedß. "Whilst in mankind the contrasts are still more marked and numerous, for not only are their <f physical features," so to apeak, different, but they differ intellectually and morally also. In some countries certain acts are considered dishonourable and even criminal, and . in others the Bame acts \Vould be looked upon as ligitimate and onourable In China and India, for instance, we believe lying is a virtue-;- we won't say a raie virtue ; while among the Negroes of America- chicken-stealing is considered one of the favourite nosturnol 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 If y violent hands on a poor unprotected fowl. As to varying opinions on political matters, they^re legion, everybody has an opinion of Borne sort; some think that Ballance and his party are tho willing instruments of the evil one ; others think them the only men capable of ushering in that em of unexampled prosperity termed by some enthusiasts the Working Men's Millennium j others, again> are loud in their praises of the author oE the Public Works Policy, whilst others clamour for Sir Harry Atkinson ; but one. and all are urfanimou's in pronouncing Buchanan's House of Commons Whisky " the Purest and JBest in.the Market."