THE LAST YEAR OF THE CENTURY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11433, 25 July 1900, Page 6

THE LAST YEAR OF THE CENTURY.

. *_— ■ , ■^-y.i".-:, This ■ momcntoiw; epoch is represent by four figures only. ■:. Oh, how thoy S p e^j . In us, '.through us,; their electricity forces it,..Bubtlo influence and Titanio energy; ]^^^j n : with powor, trembling with pathos, pregnant with mighty issues, their echoes will rev eN berate down tho ages of a marvellous future • whose destiny will be coloured and moused by the thrilling . events, :' which ;' in f eol o y &J§ pageant, : unique grouping, and ■ under iS'"~ conditions, aro marching before us. - ,7:;f r ; , The days we. live in are eventful/ the tim* perilous,; tho soasons thickening and darleP# ing around us aro deeply aid fearfully sijjni' ficant! if Fresh ■theatres of war. aro' 6peni D ' ovcry day,., the-.South African melodr» m surprises, tragedies, are outvied by. the s>7 1 den kaleidoscopic temples of Mars which m 9 being opened in the East. •' '• '<l-siffio. ; China, in her /unparalleled atroeiti-. s ;y massacres of helpless, innocent and u.ioffenA ing women and children, has thrown ( | o &§i the gauntlet.-" Britain and France, Russia a||§ Germany, _ America and Japan,? with shin, manifold, munitions of war,. failprs, and .soldiers,' have' gone , to this hoary : Empire What we now see may be but tho vestihnlj of that bloody temple, which, for lack of» J moro suitable . name, wo may denominnii P 'Armageddon. • Last year bequeathed to the British' Kmpi« an appalling legacy of wounds, suffering 3$ death. ; If in the lowly.British cottagoliitta. tears were sited over brave lads who had fiuffl len, so also in, many a stately mansion wail'— ing prevailed for scions of noble; houses, whoso familiar voices would never agairi resound through those ancestral halls. , Tito present year was also ushered iii by « n l alarum of war, tho pendulum has been swi n ? ing to and fro from then till now, and an! pears likely with increased momentum tr oscillate. till tho lust solemn syllable of the nineteenth century. _, i ~. . .Gaunt famine, with its unspcakablo horrors has ' projected its visage in some of. the pro! vinces of India. The brush of the imacL tion is too weak to throw on the canvas S heartrending spectacles, which in fragment fairy details have reached us, piercing W§ I heart like a dagger, and stirring the deepest $ emotions of the soul. , -• -/- |. ' ... ! Tho victims liavo fallen by thousands jm) millions of coin has been'donated by the I British Empire to relievo the situation, In 1 New Zealand wo have herein nobly done our 1 part. Theso actions shimmer with light fimj» aro the golden strands which bind firmly tk 8 I f hearts of tho ruled to the benignant thront of the ruler. ' '''■■■ M-^-t Tho bubonic plague has been on the Infill I If it has not set foot on our shores it hat certainly visited tho sister colonies, siipplyjjj food for reflection, labour for an army of cleansers, practice for the medical expert, and increased business for the undertaker! BoH walks in darkness, revels in filth, makes Si : rodent his messenger, and wastes at noon'' day. ;■" - . - ';-.;.,<'; _ The hydra-headed fire fiend, with its ]a n . > ing entrails and tongue of flame, hissing, roar.'ing, leaping, crackling, increasing in m\M indulgence of appetite, has swept over Ottawa I leaving its terrible marks of• disaster and ■ ruin. Miles of lurid flame leaped into 2 I heavens, folding in their mantle an enormoiii I ' amount of property, while unfortunate vie | ! tims found therein both winding sheet mijK' ] shroud. "■ - • In Now York a conflagration carmos I hundreds through burning flame and frightful torture to death,-also accentuates the visi- I i tation of this dreadful scourge J " ' j The artist, poet, moralist, and historian I ! the futuro will paint this memorable year in 1 tears and blood. Its sublime forehead,'i' j'" gashed and marred by war, furrowed ami I blasted by famine, blotched and disfigured f by plague, charred and blackened by fire, i will loom out conspicuously as a' monnnWl ' of peerless - tribulation. . .;. . -.\, Drought, famine, plague, blood and Bamc, ' I All nature's ills and life's worst foes ;:""-" t\ seem to be focussed herein, and find spasmodic tongues of expression in mourning, lamet | tation and woe. Some may say this is a dark I picture; alas! it is but a feeble , mirror, 1 through which the facts peep, 'therein?.! 1 not an iota of pessimism. . £ \ The political heavens ' are \xveryvh«M- | mantled with ominous clouds, > but \- those which are darkest aro .">; fluted * I and fringed to our eye? with bow,! .: of . celestial brightness, The crashing § calamities in South Africa and China will un- 1 bosom by degrees their latent mercies. We : ;? | sent to the formor. place soldiers and sailon? 1 to fight the battle of freedom.. •On the hills, $ in tho vales, amid the kopjes, by the stream!, icon the high road and tho veldt; on thtfbiiniiaf.'l I sand, in the chilling dew, by shot and shell § fever and wounds, our valiant soldiers bare IB won their duplets- and found their graves to . 1 win this battle. ■ " • • ' 61

To China wo despatched them, not for lust of Empire, but to maintain an open door policy, while our. . missionaries lava essayed to unfurl the banner of - the- Cross. We arc now in the perils, in the evils, but these may be only the growing pains of tit coming_ good, the birth-throes of a mightr awakening from cruelty to kindness', "froQ: darkness to light, from death to life, and fron the power of Satan to God!"—I am, etc,f Jxo. Abbott.!-; St. George's Bay Road, Parnell'< : July 23, 1900. ~' J .