PROVIDENT PEOPLE. (The Queen.)

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 317, 26 May 1874, Page 2

PROVIDENT PEOPLE. (The Queen.)

J3ktween extravagance and meanness, reckless waste and " tho good old gentlemanly vice" of avarice, lies that middle term of proTidence which, like all middle terms, is so difficult to hit with precision, and is so valuable when hit. Indeed, providence is one of the essentials of self-respect ; just as no man who U improvident— flush with money to-day, run dry to-morrow; now "treating" all his friends like Forfcunatiis playing at general hospitality, now borrowing from the poorest, with no difference in reality between him and a wayside beggar — can understand the meaning of the term, or know in the smallest degree wherein true self-respect consists. Amoaor the impossibilities of human action is that of doing any substantial good to tbs improvident. No amount of money short of a perpetual shower of gold filtering through alt the pores of their Jexpenditure , would keep them well provided. Set them on their legs as often as one may, they are sure to topple over again into the muddy misery whence they have been plucked ; and all their debts discharged in tho spring have repeated themselves, may be with additions, by the autumn. No lessons of hard experience make any impression on them. If the way by which they travel has led them twenty times into the heart of a morals, on to the brink of a precipice, they nevertheless go along it with eyes wilfully blinded and minds of false tranqiuhty for tho tweity-first. The rnta of life by which they have their being is that of self-inaulgence, and, whether it brings them to ruin or not, they persist in following it. Small wonder then, as human nature is constituted— but to be deplored all the same — that their friends grow tired of this perpetual help which never really aids, of this inces'ant rescue which never saves. It is trying to ladle out the ocean with a spoon, they say, to fill up a quaking moss with barrowfnls of garden mould, to extinguish a raging fire with sheets of brown paper. The improvident grumble lustily. Helped more than anyone else, they have more complaints to make against the coldness of friends and the cruelty of the world than anyone else ; and 1 when they have exhausted tho patience and tho means of those who have put themselves to all sorts of trouble and denied themselves all sorts ef gratification to assist them, they offer themselves as objects of universal commisseration on the plea of their pressing need and the selfish indifference of society. For, sad as the truth is, it is none tho less real that misfortune doe* make men often unju«t, bitter, uneonscientious, and almost always ungrateful. It is so hard to keep in mind efforts which have failed — to remember help which bos not done substantial good — to be grateful for failure, even if we ourselves, by our own folly, have produced that failure ! Human nature is very weak on sll sides, and the improvident, unfortunately for themselves, have no strengthening buttress anywhere. * If all this is true of the improvident, the exact converse may be snid of the provident. No Mian's fortune is so safe from linim that he may nofc at limes be reduced to the lowest ebb, and that by no fault or folly of his own. The battle of life must needs bring temporary disaster to all the fighters, however strong. To thoio who are secure there is no battle at all Out in the press and tho straggle even tho bravpst, the most wary, may be brought to their knees Sifkres", with loss of nctual funds in hand and of the potential \j loss ■ f work — misfortune of that irresponsible kind against which no diligence can provide, and which no astuteness can foresee — the unexpected ruin of agents necessarily trusted, as one's lawyer, one's trustee, one's banker, and the like — all these are the hard blows which may fall upon the cleverest, the boldest, and overwhelm them so that there shall be no recovery without help 5 out with that help their entire reir statement, and in all probability matters put on a firmer baais and a higher krjl than before. This brings with it no sen«e of humiliation, because it is only help, not almsgiving. Seeing that they must of necessity refund this lean, give back this aid 1 , if they would still be of thoio who respect themselves and claim respect from 1 others, tho provident are self-denying, careful, industrious ; and so, by grace of conscience nnd greatness of self-control, justify their frirncV trust in them, nnd make that temporary nid no permanent loss to the aider and of permanent good to thems*'v»*. It pan be done — can always bo clone if only tho will ii there to do it. It is not often, "fchoneh, that the provident need even temporary crutches. The main object of fchoir social lives is to stand nlone. They have 11 wholesome hor or of the possibility of dependence, and know thnt oflcntimec, with the be»t will in the world, thnt which looked like an oaken staff i» only a broken reed under trial, and that dependence on its staying power results in fracture nnd a pierced hand. So they trust to themselves alone ; saving here and the rj, not by meanness but hy self-restraint ; little by little rolling up minute margins from small earnings that they mar have a firm and solid baso on which to fall bnck, a haven wherein to take refnge if foul weather comes on nnd they aro forced out of their course, a good oaken staff of their own which will serve them well so long as a fibre of it remains. Provident people save out of incomo so meagre as to appnrently scarce float them above th» shallows of starvation. If they have twenty pounds- they spend nineteen pounds nineteen shillings, and aro by just so much before the world nnd their own master*. The improvident spend twenty pound's and one shilling over, and thus are by so much the property of the man to whom they owe that impossible twolvrpence. There hare been fortunes as well as ruin made before now out of beginnings as humble as that one shilling saved or spent ; and at all events, passing by the nmount, the principle remains intact, and is the one by which the improvident full and the provident rise — by whjch the former becomes helpless, dependent, and on every one's hands that will accept them, th« ktter potentates in their degree, gaining power and retaining at all times their independence. There is 10 much pleasure in helping the provident f think the kind-hea-ted and wisely- judging. It is like putting out philanthropy to good interest— and°the »ate of interost is the determining quality of everything in these day». Helping the improvident, on the contrary, i% like flinging one's human care into the gulf of an insolvent company, buying shares in a rotten concern, sinking a shaft in a barren or worn-out claim. But to help those who help thenu«lve3 ii to sow good seel that brings forth abundant harvest, and to buy in a rising market at a cheap outlay and profitable returns. But, tor all that, we would put in a kindly word for the poor ruined improvident, those coats so desperately and so continually out at elbows, tho*e rags and tatters of misfortune self-generated. If we were to consider only the profitable investments of our philanthropy, it is to be feared wo should end by cultivating selfishness only, under the mmc of benevolence; , earing more to take credit for our good work in the reins tatement of A and B, than to do the absolute right irrespective of the result. And surely the absolute right is to bear one another's burdens, and help those who need, whether they are profitable or unprofitable, of the independent by nature or tho pauperised by habit. It is usual to relegate providence or improvidence to the working classes only ; of whom the rich, meaning those who have to help, are too much inclined to judge solely by this inequality or demerit. A man may be a loving father and a good son, a clever workman and an honest fellow, but if he is improvident, spendi his wages as he gets them, and lays by nothing for the rainy day so snre to come, he is accounted a man of no worth, and hit improvidence is made the scapegoat whereon to bind the sins of the whole class. But if he is 0 gentleman, given to outrun the constable, to livo beyond his means, or to show more taste, hospitality, sanguine hope in business—whatever the special rock may be whereon he has made shipwreck — than he is warranted by his banker's book, he is gently judged 1 and tencbriy pitied for the most part (unless his friends have lost money by him, and then he is condemned without hope of mercy), and that shadowy thing called ill-luck has to bear the brunt of his failure. Again, a provident workman may be a surly fellow enough a but, if ho is careful and saving, and gives his! children ; good start from the springboard of his own advancement, his worldly success is held in lieu of all spiritual grace ; and the fact thnt he has never come to the parish or gone on to the club is nccounted to him as a virtue which condones any amount of rurlc temper or sullen ways. On the other hand, a provident gentleman has to steer very close to clear himself from tho ugly suspicion of niggardliness. If tho rich do not like to pay rates to support the improvident poor, neither do they like to forrgo pleasures to assure the provident of their own cless in the coveted amassing of a fortune. It belongs to degreo to spend on such and such matters, and balls and dinners and at-homes come into the necessity of a gentleman, the accompaniment obhligato of station. This is only saying that we have more selfishness as a rule than consideration for others or conscientious judgment of difficulties ; and that we are too roady to mensure a man's worth or worthlessness according as we ourselves aro affected, rather thnn by the nbsolnte good or evil of his net. Nevertheless providence, which is not meanness, i« a grand quality herewith to work through the world ; while improvidence is like water thrown on sand, or tho wind sweeping through a heap of chaff, by which no cohesion is possible, and no stabihtv attainable. J