Untitled

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6065, 31 December 1897, Page 2

Death, who has all Beasons for his own, has not been idle during 1897 ; but the list of prominent or famous people whom he has claimed durin tr tlie twelve months is not a very long one. It includes the names oE the Due d'Orleans, whose son and successor to 'the royal Bourbon pretensions in France has just publicly made what is almost a renunciation of his claims; Sip William Jervois and Lord Rosmead, former Governors of New Zealand, and the last-named also ex-Governor of Cape Colony • Sir Isaac Pitman, the inventor of phonography ; Professor Henry . Drum[mond, theological writer; arid Mr A. 1 j J. Mundella, a well-known English politician. Of men prominent in. Australasian affairs, Queensland has to mourn the loss ot Sir Charles Lilley, and Victoria that of Sir W. J. Clarke, while Fiji, and the West Pacific have lost an able administrator by the death of Sir J. B. Thuraton.The ranks of our old colonists have been thinned by " brother followingbrother from sunshine to the sunlesß land." But Time, the healer and renewer, is ever repairing the breaches helms made in the population and offering the consolation of forgetfulness to those who remain. And hence as the y«ar closes, with its record of human joy and sorrow, and failure and achievement, and sin and crime redeemed by heroism and virtue, we can all look backward with our regrets ureatly modified and our griefs made less poignant, thankful for past experiences and glad to have reached another milestone on life's journey. Hence, too, we can look forward with hope, the eternal well-spring, as fresh as ever in our hearts, and go onward to fresh struggles and enjoyments and duties. This is, or ought to be, the animating spirit at this season, and in that spirit we wish to one and all A Happy New Year.