The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 7.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 258, 7 January 1879, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 7.

We are now commencing a new year, and at such a time a brief review of the year now numbered with the past is not inappropriate. Twelve months ago the Eastern part of Europe was convulsed with a bloody struggle. The Muscovite and the Turk were flying at each others' throats. Europe looked on in a manner dumbfoundered at the struggle. On the one hand, it was felt that the dominion of the followers of the Prophet in Europe was an amachronism ; on the other it was more than suspected that the solicitude evinced "by the Czar for the sufferings endured by the Eastern Christians was more or less a cloak for the carrying out of ambitious designs and a long-coveted extension of territory. At length, one, if not both, of the combatants being wearied out, Europe stepped in as arbiter of the dispute, and the result was the Berlin Conference. In the main, we think that most enlightened readers of history will agree with the sentiments that seem to have actuated the diplomatists composing that assembly. While agreeing that, the power of Turkey in Europe having been thoroughly broken, it was inadvisable that it should ever be re-estab-lished, they at the same time declined to entrust the renovation of order in her disorganized provinces to any one power, least of all to the Muscovite. The result was a kind of compromise, and all compromises carr}' within themselves to a certain extent the seeds of disaffection and weakness. Still, as we before observed, we believe that perhaps as good an arrangement was made as, was possible under the circumstances. Turkey has been effectually shorn of any power for mischief she possessed in Europe, and an honest attempt has been made to place between her and her hereditary foe a cordon of independent states. The chief difficulty that has been encountered has been the attitude assumed by the inhabitants of these enfranchized communitirs. Nor is this to be wondered at. Centuries of misrule have thoroughly disorganized these unhappy nationalities ; and it is not surprising that the moment the pressure of terror is removed the slave should seek to revenge himself on his former tyrant. We think this selfevident truth quite sufficient to account for the sickening details the Press has been full of, of ** atrocities" committed now by one side, now by the other. What is wanted for these unfortunate people is a strong, firm and pre-eminently just government. Once let them practically understand that government is something other than a mere machine for wringing the last possible coin out of them by all kinds of oppression, and they will have mastered the first lesson in the art of self-government to which it is hoped to educate them.

In the contests of peace the year 1878 has been signalised by the Paris Exhibition, of the conclusion of which our Paris correspondent gave a graphic account in the last number of this journal.

To come nearer home, the year just passed has not been an uneventful one for New Zealand. During its course a Session of the General Assembly has been held, in the conrse of which some of the most important questions that can agitate a community have been debated. On the whole, the democratic cause represented by the present Government has achieved a triumph, though certainly much yet remains to be done. We have no doubt, however, of the ultimate success of the principles thus enunciated. It is only requisite that tlie people at large shall take a sufficient interest in what so nearly concerns each and every one of them.

To come from great things to small, or from generals to particulars, we are sorry that we cannot congratulate our readers on the favorable nature of the present season. On the contrary, it is unfortunately too true that the almost unpresedented drought which we have lately experienced, following, as it did, on a very severe winter and backward spring, has done an immense amount of damage to our staple productions of every description. However, to use a homely adage, we must make up our minds to put " a stout heart to a stey brae," and remember for our own comfort that no interest so soon recovers from a temporary depression as the landed interest. If the present exceptionally dry season were to teach our settlers a lesson of the danger of excessive denudation of our hill-sides of the forest natural to them, it would more than make up for any temporary loss inflicted.

What the coming year has in store is known to no mortal, but, without wishing to sermonize, vte remind our readers that each and all of us has the power of influencing events to an appreciable extent. That this influence be exerted for good is the surest means of securing what we all wish one another at this season—A Happy New Year.