A New Year's Letter.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 878, 28 December 1888, Page 4

A New Year's Letter.

A new year opens ; all the world rejoices or puts on the semblanoe of joy, for we are inconsistent creatures, aDd when the advent of a new January should remind us that we have one year less to live, we put on our best clothes, spread our table with good cheer for home consumption, or go forth to spend a festive day, though we cannot help knowing that another of the three-score years and ten which all men and women confidently expect to enjoy, and whioh bo few really live

out, has turned its back on us, leaving behind memories more or less saddening to us older folks. It is doubtful whether any but ohil* dren or young people really enjoy the anniversaries, though there is a great pretence of holiday - making and merry-making. People expect us to be very cheerful, and demand it of themselves. They bustle about smilingly, cook fine dinners, buy presents, and hang up decorative greenery, as if there were no ghosts of departed joys rf shattered hopes, and alas ! lost fiiends, in close attendance. Still there would be no wisdom in sitting apart gloomy and wretched, and as we cannot alter anything by grieving over the past, let us do our best to be jolly, and by a proper use of God’s gifts we may actually manage it. There are so many things to be thankful for, and bright hope ever shining on the future.

This is the anniversary of the introduction of ‘ The Friendly Exchange ’ into the pages of the Tee N.Z. Mail, and I think we may congratulate ourselves all round on the success of the venture. Thanks to kind contributors, the Exchanges have been both pleasant and profitable, and quite justified the assertion I made at the commencement, that every woman has a store of information at command wherewith to help her neighbour, if she will but take the trouble to open it. ‘ Give and take ’is a good rule ; it should not be all ‘ take ’ and no ‘give. ’ If you have thought out some plan for saving labour, some household convenience, or good thing for the table; if you have heard anything likely to be of service to others, impart the knowledge. Open your storehouse freely and so shall a blessing desoend on yourself. I hope to have many fresh contributors for the coming year who, unselfishly, will give up a small portion of their time to enlarging and improving the ‘ Friendly Exchange.’ I am gratified and encouraged by the numerous letters of appreciative readers to whom I return hearty thanks for their kipdnoss, and I shall be only too pleased to receive hints or suggestions of any kind likely to be useful and helpful, and shall be equally glad to answer inquiries, confidental or otherwise, to the best of my ability. To be able to help others is a high ambition, a still more glorious is the desire to live for othere, for that involves self-abnegation. The following precepts bearing on this subject wore found written in the expense book of a noble woman after her death ; they bad been the code upon which she had formed her life for over forty years, and those who knew the utter unselfishness of that life could testify how truly she acted up to her principles. ‘To postpone my own pleasure to others

convenience, My own convenience to others’ comfort, • My own comfort to others’ want, My own want to others’ extreme need.’ Not to every woman is given the power to attain such excellence, but all can do something towards gaining a step or two upwards even to entertain the desire is progression in the right direction. And now, dear friends, I will close my letter with the hearty wish that you each and all may have a bright and happy New Year. Elise.