The Feilding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, DEC. 23, 1893. A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 199, 23 December 1893, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, DEC. 23, 1893. A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

J It is with feelings of pleasure that we again desire that our readers will | accept bur hearty good wishes on this t festival of the greatest event which . has ever been chronicled in the civilized world. It is now that all regrets for the sorrows, troubles, and tribulations of the past year should be buried in oblivion, and our hearts filled with 1 gratitude for the many worldly bles [ sings which have been vouchsafed to [ us, and a lively hope of a prosperous season in the New Year, now so near its natal day. We must confess that i the outlook is not so cheerful as we would like it to be, but we have per- ; feet confidence in the well-proved capacity of the people of this country to meet, and overcome, all ordinary i obstacles in the way of progress. Whatever ill-fortune has happened- to New Zealand during the year now rapidly closing, the members of the farming community have the satisfaction of knowing that to them, and to them alone, is due the credit of creating and maintaining the partial prosperity it now enjoys, Without the frozen meat and dairy industries > and the wool exports, there would hare been a disastrous collapse. The scarcity of money here just now is i owing almost entirely to over-specula-tion on the part of the neighbouring colonies, and the criminal mismanagement of the mushroom financial institutions there and in England, which ended in so many miserable failures, the consequent absolute loss of many millions of money, and the looking up of other millions for an indefinite period, It is very much the fashion to blame the local banks for " pulling up their customers " and so on ; but, in our opinion, they have had no option. Besides, we think that by this time next year many people who now complain most bitterly on that point, will then confess the banks - were " wise in their generation," and did the best thing possible for their clients under the circumstances now existing. Having in view the enor- | mous fiscal and direct taxation the ordinary population and the property c owners have to pay, judicious economy can best be cultivated when speculation is almost non-existent. Referring * more particularly to this |>art of the colony, we have no fears. The land in fertile, settlement is going on rapidly, the population is increasing at a rate, surpassing that of any other district in the Colony, while flocks and herds are multiplying marvellously, and thus adding to the substantial wealth of the settlers who thereby have direct encouragement for the expenditure of their industrial energies in the certain hope of a profitable reward to follow. With the prosperity of the ; farmers the prosperity of the business people in the town goes hand-in-hand. We sincerely hope that our anticipations of the good which is to : befall our readers, friends, and neighbor! in the near future, will be more than realized, and we cordially wish them one and all A MEBBT ChHISTMAS.