The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1926. EXIT 1926

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12643, 31 December 1926, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1926. EXIT 1926

The end of the year will be honoured to-night with the usual rejoicings. It is mankind’s way iof announcing the decision to do better in the year that is coming than it did in the year that has almost gone. Between the broad grave of the old and the opening theshold of the new stand good resolutions, ringing bells, and drinking toasts; rejoicing equally in escape from evil as in the hope of coming good. Once more we realise that, whatever cause we may have had for regret, hope springs eternal. To justify the hope for the future, we survey the past with brave faces. Out of the tangle of events which fills our view of the outgoing year, two things of world prominence stand boldly out. These are the admission of Germany to the League of Nations and the great coal strike of Britain. The first marks a substantial step forward of the peace policy for which the League of Nations was set up to carry out for the world at large on the lines of justice, reason, and good understanding. While the second has demonstrated that when a class takes up against a sensible nation of which it forms a part the weapons of brute force, that weapon must break into pieces in its futile hands. The first throws the mantle of encouragement over the vast mass of difficult detail arrangement yet to be gone through before the permanent establishment of a reasonable peace systetn. The second adds to this encouragement the assurance that arbitrary methods are powerless against reasonable arbitration.

Another event of good augury for mankind is the final declaration of the unity of the British Empire. The Imperial Conference has proclaimed that nothing, however complicated or difficult, will be allowed to weaken the bonds holding together the mighty Empire whose power for good is acknowledged by the best thought of the world.

These three events, rising prominent out of the tangle of the world’s affairs, justify the hope that the tangle is in a fair way to straightening out by reason and goodwill. Keeping pace with these hopeful signs, the world’s trade situation has gone forward steadily through the year towards that complete recovery from the disaster of the war which all men desire, while some or the best men are predicting its rapid coming. 1926 is the year in which the hand of optimism began to touch the threads which pessimism had declared to be hopelessly tangled. The past yea,r marks the substitution in high places of energetic effort for the despair of hopeless acquiescence in pressing evils. Leading signs are the discussion of the problem, of armaments ; of the problem of national waf debts; of the Chinese problem, towards tne solution of which British statesmanship has given a remarkably and probably very timely lead. The Dominion has seen better years than 1926, but-has not had too much to complain of in that year. The public revenue’s surplus probably reflects the private financial situation of the country. The Coates 1 Government has justified its postponement of many things of importance for the sake of the Imperial Conference, which has proved itself worthy of any by its momentous decisions. Nothing has interfered with the usual full, popular enjoyment of its games and pastimes. - Our sports representatives have done fairly well abroad; our dramatic world has seen a welcome revival of Gilbert-Sullivan opera; the public health has been good; bad weather has.given the year a grey tinge, and Christmas enjoyment has, nevertheless, broken records. The year has been more memorable for what it has avoided—very much according to the prophets of the “might-have-been” order. The world has-seen much toiling—except for the unemployed of’ many countries; it has done some rejoicing, and felt the sorrowing inseparable from its life, but not to be named in comparison with what the war brought. It has also attempted much, and in this spirit of enterprise this country has certainly not been backward. With pleasant thoughts of the past, we wijsh our readers one and all . A HAPPY NEW YEAR.