STRIKING DIVERSITY AND STRANGE UNANIMITY. THE WORKING MAN’S MILLENNIUM. It is said tnat 'Variety is the spioe of life,’ and that ‘it adds to its flavour.’ The poet (Isaao Watts, or Cowper, we forge! which) was not vtry far wrong when ho penned this couplet, for oortainly life would be but a dull monotonous thing were it not for its pleasing and relieving contrasts. In the animal world we have the graceful and shy deer and the bold and ferocious lion, the huge elephant, and the diminutive though destructive mouse; there is the plain, humble looking thrush, with its rich soDg, and the beautiful humming bird whose musical talents (and he has sense enough to know it) are conspicuously absent; then there is the monster ivhale and the tiny shrimp on which it feeds. Whilst in mankind the contrast, are still more marked and numerous, for not nly are their' physical features,’ so to speaks different, but they differ intellectually and morally also. In some countries oertain acts are considered dishonourable and even criminal, and in others the same acts would be looked upon as legitimate and honourable. In China and India, for instance, we believe, lying is a virtue—we won’t say a rare virtue ; while among the Negroes of Amerioa chioken-stealing is considered one of the favourite nocturnal 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 lay violent hands on a poor unprotected fowl. As to varying opinions on political matte:* they are legion, everybody has an opinion of some sort; some think that Ballanceand his party are the willing instruments of the 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 Millenium ; others, again, are loud in their praises of the author of the Public Works Policy ; but one and all are unanimous in pronouncing Buchauau 6 House of Common’s Whisky ‘ the Purest and Best in the Market.’
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 32
Word Count
359Page 32 Advertisements Column 2 New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 32
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