THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1922. CHRISTMAS, 1922.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4507, 22 December 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1922. CHRISTMAS, 1922.

“I heard the bells of Christmas Day Their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet The words repeat Of Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” —Longfellow. The sentiments and reflections proper to Christmastide are always aroused by its return,_ and are no more stale than the mind’s response to each of the seasonal changes of the year. To one section of the population, a very large, valuable, and influential Section, which should be, and usually is, represented in every home, the sentiments proper to the season are Hope and Joy, the latter assuming audible form on the morning after the Eve of Mystery—Christmas Eve. The fitting morning hymn of this class, slightly adapted, begins : “Waken, Christian children Up and let us sing.” With hope and joy comes also memory, and not infrequently regret. We are apt, some of us, to look back and reflect, where are we on this journey? Well, at any rate, this is where we are today ; at a pleasant stopping place where we have a smile, a greeting, a more cordial thought for those other companionable wayfarers, also pausing, also smiling, and also looking back for a moment. In the nature of things, no year goes by without bringing sorrow to some hearts, loss to some homes; but the heartwarmth of this festive season, this “Feast of St. Friend,” as Arnold Bennett calls it, will but glow more beneficently within us as we spare thoughts of true sympathy. To all our circle of friends, fellow townsfolk, and readers we give a hearty greeting, and wish that this Christmas may be filled sweetened by exchange of kindness and sympathy, and that Christmas morning may shine for them with “T>)c Light that Shone when -Hope was born.”