HELP FOR QUEENSLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2901, 17 February 1893, Page 2

HELP FOR QUEENSLAND.

To-morrow afternoon, summoned by the mayor of Ashburton borough, the settlers of town and county are asked to assemble in public meeting in the Orange Hall, to adopt measures of relief for the sufferers by the disastrous floods in Queensland. We shall be glad to see a full and enthusiastic meeting—a meeting ready to act, for the aid wanted is great, and the need is pressing and admits of no delay. It is pleasing to note that Government j has laid free railway carriage and the shipping companies free freightage at lh« disposal of chose who,-with " the heart that can feel for another," may be ready to make contributions in kind for the relief of the victims in their time of dire calamity. Already relief funds have been opened in all the colonies, and in many parts of our own, and the sums have not been inconsiderable that have been up to the present raised in New Zealand and sent to Brisbane. But the calamity 1b of appalling magnitude, «nd the efforts of the whole of the colonies will be required to give even a measure of relief. Although much of the property destroyed by the floods no doubt belongs to corporations, or to persons whom ruin will not reach by the loss, there must be thousands of people reduced to absolute starvation by the destruction of property and by the stoppage of all ordinary work and business. But a short time ago the empire rang with a cry for federation. It appears to us that now occurs an opportunity for the true spirit of federation to be manifested — that i spirit which recognises the brother-1 hood of mail and impels the reaching out of the arm of love to relieve the suffering. It is the boast of the century that its advanced Ecience has made a hard fact of what William Shakespeare, in tre quip of his playful sprite no doubt fancied the greatest of all impossibilities—"l will put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes," —and news can be flashed along those telegraphic girdles in a few seconds. Our steam communication by land and sea is in keeping, And it will be a star in the century's crown if all these wonders of her progress—wonders that have been so largely used to promote our pleasure and our profit, yea, pressed into warfare between nations—can now, at a moment's notice, be switched off to the relief of distress so sudden and terribly vast as this. Already the cable has wired help in money to Brisbane from these shores, and before another week has opened upon us; perhaps before this one closes; several steamers laden with New Zealand produce will be cleaving the water on their merciful mission to the distressed. And those poor people, as the floods recede that have covered their homes, and show the desolation that has been left to them by the deluge, will see at least one bright star of hope for them arise in the help that had been sent to them by their brethren of the more fortunate portions of Australasia. To what a grand and glorious use will these wonders of the age be put in relieving even in a slight degree the distress of this terrible calamity. And all the real effective help afforded must come from outside of Queensland, for nearly the whole of Queensland is involved in the disaster, the accounts of which are about the saddest and most distressing reading our columns have contained for many a day. What organisations may exist for the distribution of relief when it is afforded we do not know, but doubtless with distress so dire there will be plenty of these, and efficient enough; at any rate distance separates us too far to enquire, and that matter may be well left with those on the spot. The matter for us to consider is the more practical one of—what, or how much, can we give ? That question settled there remains only one thing to be done—give it! There will be no lack of means to send it on.