The Feilding Star. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27, 1882. CHRISTMAS IN IRELAND.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 55, 27 December 1882, Page 2

The Feilding Star. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27, 1882. CHRISTMAS IN IRELAND.

great destitution, and it is surmised the distress will increase" This is the hardest time in the year iv Ireland, when the bitter cold is added to the awful pangs of hunger, and when even hope has died our. Those who remember " the Black Forty Seven" with is burning nvm- | ory of horrors, when, alter four or five j years of abundant harvests had L-iven ! comparative happiness and prosp >rity, and when uo one cvncraeti him.-ell to discover how slender and treacherous wits the foundation for this rrpneral hopefulness and confidence. Yet in one we- k almost the wasting blight of a siu.oon seemed to sweep the land, blasting all in its path. Yet the buoyant nature of the Celtic p»a-ant did not givH way. The crops were so proiuse that it was expected ihe healthy portion would reach an aver a»e result. Winter reveale i the alarming fact that the tuWs had rotted in pit and storehouse. r J his was in 1845. in order to meet the pinch of sore distress, if not actual famine, the farmers worked as for dear life; they begged and borrowed on any terms the means whereby to crop the land once more. Meals were stinted, backs were bared, anything to tide over v Forty-six." Yet it was the harvest of ''Forty-six" that sealed 'heir doom. Not partially, but completely, utterly, hopelessly, it perished. Blank stolid dismay — a sort of stupor — fell upon the people, contrast in<r remarkably with the energy put forth a year befcre. No man ever before witnessed so sudden and so terrible a transformation. The Government was paralysed, and blundering stupidity marked its every action, while thousands of lives that might have been saved to the country were sacrificed on the alter of red tape and bureaucracy. We have not the time or space to give even a slight sketch of the horrors of this awful famine of 1847. Few of our readers but must have read or heard the dreaiful tale from the p-ns or lips of living witnesses, so that little need exists for us to tell " a twice told tale." Our duty is to compare our prosperous condition with the wretched state of those poor people now in Ireland who are again afflicted, and to plead for them and bes that a little of our surplusage may he sent with an open hand, to relieve these unfortunate sufferers. We have always done so ; never yet was the voice of sorrow and distress raised in the Old Country but that the colonies readily responded, and assisted to mitigate the pain; and surely in our " hours of gladness" we will not forget those unhappy ones who are starving with cod and hunger while we are warm and have abundance of good things Let each and every one give his mite towards a fund to he immediately remitted by wire to the proper persons in Ireland, so that as much di>tress may he relieved at once as is possible. " Every pound means a human life saved." Doubtless our example will be followed in other parts of the colony, but let Feilding have the honor of leading the van in so good a cause. A list is now open at (his office, and contributions will be thankfully received. Full publicity will be duly given, and the list of contributors to tl.e roll of honor published each issue of our paper.

Whjlk we in New Zealand are basking in the rays of a warm summer nun, and plenty reigns in our happy land, where prosperity and contentment abound on every side, and the ordinary cares of life are reduced to a minimum, and when most of our hearis are open with pladnes" during tins festive s asor, there has been fla-hed a<ro!*e from Lotnlou tbe melancholy news th;it •• owii.o to the failure of the potato crop hundred* of tbe poorer classes are already suffering from .