A PICTURESQUE PENMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 100, 13 May 1901, Page 4

A PICTURESQUE PENMAN.

The London reporters kid themsesvos out to say something appropriately poetical about the di-appearaucc from view of the Ophir and hci consoles from Portsmouth. It looks as if the palm must he award* 1 to a Ihiilu I'hroivcbmau. After describing various fleeting glances of the big vessel, he winds up : "We saw her later once more; the smoke haze had passed away, and .'he stood out clear and white, mellowed by the distance. Those who like omens, and believe in them, may dmw something from this incident. It is an unknown future that the Ophir has gone on: on the results that may spring from it the future of the Empire will depend. England, a.- we know it. is passing, must pass. Tin'colonies can no longer remain outlying .suburbs; they will either be incorporated in one] vast whole, or drop away from the central State. With a voice in the councils of the Empire must come responsibilities also, and some may not care for the price. There and here also it will have to be given and taken, and who can now tell the end of these things. Come what will, it can never be all brightness and plain sailing till the end is achieved, and cloudy days may be in store. May the Empire, like the Ophir, emerge mellowed out of darkness in the days that are to come." There is something of the prophet in this picturesque penman.