Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DEC. 28, 1893. Christmas.

Manawatu Herald, 23 December 1893, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DEC. 28, 1893. Christmas.

" A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year " to all. It is a little thing to say, but a great thing to really desire. " The attempt, and not the deed confounds us." It is a wish that is impossible, too many circumstances in this state, of life prevent one and all being able to enjoy that we would desire they should. Though thus impds'srible of attainment it is not impossible for everyone to strive to do what lays in his power to help the young and hfialfchy to enjoy themselves and to cheer and lighten the pains and sorrows of those otherwise placed. In looking around us we have evidence that th re is much to be thankful for, even as Gitche Manito in Hiawatha pointpd out. " I have given you lands to hunt in, I have given you streams to fish iv, I have given you bear and bison, I have given yon roe and reindeer, I have given you brant and beaver, Filled the marshes full of wild fowl, Filled the rivers full of fislies ; Why then are you not contented ?" Real happiness is content, and we, the colonists of New Zealand should be happy : we enjoy peace, at home and abroad : we pass our fciiiie, generally speaking, in tickling the soil and making it laugh with abundant produce, far in excess of our own requirements. We can compare our lot with the rest of the world most complacently, and therefore why not be happy and give thanks ? Daring the year we have witnessed a general election carried out without ill-feeling and are thus enabled to flatter ourselves that we are becoming wiser than we were. Our happiness little depends upon the acts and deeds done by a small assembly of men styled a Parliament, I but it greatly depends upon the general conduct of all dwellers within the colony. Our circumstances are good, they might be better, there is never the highest point reached, but the number un- i employed are small, the -sick -and poor are fortunately few, and crime is not great. Those enjoying health and prosperity are bid to make merry and to help to cheer those whose circumstances equal not their own. This we doubt not will be done, as the colonists are neither selfish, heartless or mercenary. To give, brings more pleasure to the ( giver than the receiver, so twice blessed is he that gives fairly and discrirainately. To the thoughts of the dear ones of the family circle add also thoughts to those- elsewhere. Christmas, the season- of. reunions, recalls"tb!e paist in ' thY 'lives of everyone of us. r^he. efforts put forth this season to celebrate the diUo, lead without effort to past Cluistmas's spent elsewhere, forcibly i reminding us of the years gone past j and the changes that have occurred ! in our surroundings and within each family circle. To those who have been "born in those far off lands ! across the seas, the oherished affection for our own Old Country still clings, and we desire that the wishes wo offer to our readers may bear , themselves winga and hurry over the sixteen thousand miles of sea and

re-echo the earnest and universal cry of " A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year," to those we have left behind, and say, as Longfellow has so beautifully put ii : — "Ho walking here, in twilight, O my friends ! I hear your voices, softened by the distance, ' ' '"'''"," And pause, and turn to listen, as each .sends His wovils of fviP.nrUhip, Comfort and assis.tausv;. _ .. Perhaps 911 .eai:ihJLnqver shall behold, With eve! oi s*ehs^, 'yofcr-, outward form and;. semblance,;: ; . ij \J . Therefore to me ye never will grow old, ,Z>nt .live for, ey«r young an, my remembriiv4ej", {) '■ \ ■• ■ . What is to bo Ihe particular merry-vhaking ; this . Christmas ? A picnic to the beach ? a row up the river ? or fevn gathering in the bush ? Again what a violent contrast from the Old World. No picnicing at .Christmas there, it may be there is good ska. ting, rare fun for the young and. healthy, but then good ice means severe cold which tells hard upon the poor and feeble » Our winter's hard I Nothing to be compared withy those, of England, 1 and bur summer, barring mosquitoes, is more even and reliable. We may safely assert that those who reside in this Britain of the South reside in ' one of the fairest "spots ' on God *s earth, and every eftort should be made to live up to our surroundings. How we should so live is better stated by the poet we have before quoted, and his directions we here pass on, with the earnest hope that the New Year will witness an attempt to do as he would have us. " Bathe now in the stream before you, Wash the war-paint from your faces, Wash the bJood-stains from yonr fingers, Bury your wav-clubs and your weapons, Break the vedstone from this quarry, Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes, Take the reeds that grow beside you, Deck them with your brightest feathers, Smoke the calumet together, And as brothers live henceforward."