NEW YEAR GREETINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2546, 31 December 1902, Page 61

NEW YEAR GREETINGS.

Though the simple phrases that do duty for the expressions of goodwill are nothing in themselves the old, old custom of interchange of good wishes is still a link to hold faster the bonds of friendship and good fellowship. It helps, too, to stay the already made breach from further widening, and helps us to foster a more gracious feeling within. The thoughts that entwine around the old set words, the hopes that each greeting is fraught with, lifW it out of the commonplace, and tinges j it with a flavour of an olden past that is as the fragrance of lavender to those who are in' touch with all that pertains to old time customs. Even to the prosaic, the very up-to-date folk of to-day, to whom, new innovations are as the bread of life,' a little wave of sentiment penetrates their armour of modernism as the Christmas and New Year's greetings fall upon their ears. A happy New Year! whither does that little wish take us? To many, o distant land — to many an absent loved one. The world's restless ones are scattered far and I wide, and so in the early dawn we let our silent wishes steal out, and on the wings of i thought, be wafted to our distant loved ones. To the sun-burned plains of Australia ; tbence to the snow-wrapped valleys of America ; across to the tumultuous South, and back to the palm-fringed isles dotting the Pacific, close to us ; an earnest wish goes forth foi their welfare, a loving, hope for their future well-being. The bars of our hearts are unlocked, and New Year's thoughts fly out with unchecked rapidity. To' those who are in our midst the interchange of greetings bring a bright light to the eye — a glow to the face ; but perhaps the truest, most earnest thoughts are those love-laden ones that blend with, a prayer in their framing. The silent wishes that mothers send to their absent sons, the fond thoughts that the sombre-toned woman of the bush wings to her happier, brighter town sisters.

The best thoughts of our life come to us spontaneously at the close of the old year — at the dawning of the new one. Our minds dfop for a little space the practical conventional fife of tke hour ; we give ourselves to the softer tones, softer thoughts, that wrap us in their wondrous influence. Old memories revive, and thrill us with their strange charm. Old times come back with all the tears and laughter, sorrow and mirth, of other days. Old feuds, old bitternesses that we have nursed for years seem to fade into nothing, while our mind is filled with calm and peace. We fain would bury the troubles for ever, and out of its space let brighter, bappier thoughts take their place. Though " The crown of a sorrow's sorrow is in remembering happier things "' ; though the thought of- the old happ3 r gatherings hurt us with its comparisons and reflections it is as it should be. It forces us to sink petty feelings, to crush down the selfishness that goes to make up the dregs of life, and so let our minds, clean and unfettered, go burdened with good wishes to one and all. I would scatter the seeds of joyfulness to the four winds of Heaven this New Year's time. I would shed broadcast with it the seeds of forgiveness, so that they might twine and blossom in every heart and spread their almost invisible trail round every home, while, from overhead, the star of love should shed down a soft, holy glow, like a shadowy beacon lifting our thoughtshigher, making every life better and happier. And now, farewell to the old year that has been fraught with so much history making^; v/elcome to the new year that dawns in peace. We, from the black drought .spoiled plains of Amtrajia send greetings, tqo ; to_ the iaeeaer.. cflohu- New

Zealand. To the staff and readers of the Witness, A Happy New Year. " E.G. H.