THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1925. PEACE ON EARTH.

Wairarapa Age, 24 December 1924, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1925. PEACE ON EARTH.

Before “The Age" publishes again New Zealand will have celebrated in fitting manner and in the most happy circumstances the annual feast of Christmas. This is the season dedicated throughout the Christian world to the observance of peace on earth and goodwill towards men. For some years past these kindly sentiments have been marred, if not altogether lacking, by the bitterness and sadness of a great war, and after that by the no less bitter 'relations of the aftermath and the no less cruel sadness of widespread economic distress. The year which is drawing to a close has witnessed a very, noticeable diminution of the acerbities and the hardships of the last decade. After many disappointments and the- fading away of many alluring mirages, it does seem to-day that peace on earth is nearer at hand than it has been for many years past. There are Jeremiahs* who uneasily predict and imagine another armageddon is preparing for our sons in the near future and in the near neighbourhood of our own country: Yet the world to-day as a whole looks much brighter than it has looked, and the factors of conflict are certainly less definite and less martially arrayed than at any time in the last 40 years. From the purely material point of. view, the year has brought a great accession of prosperity to New Zealand. Unemployment is practically unknown, and from that point of view the New Zealand workingman will be able to throw himself heart and soul into the festivities of the season without anything to inar his pleasure. Though the Christmas season in New Zealand is entirely different in character from that in England, many of the same customs obtain, particularly those which have a religious or semireligious nature. Here, too, certain of the churches hold religious services; Christmas boxes are given and received, carols are sung, and, above all, the universal greeting is exchanged in an atmosphere of peace and goodwill, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ’ ’