THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1924. CHRISTMAS, 1924.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4793, 24 December 1924, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1924. CHRISTMAS, 1924.

“1 heard the bells on Christmas Day, Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.” The near approach of Christmas conveys a reminder that another yeai is rapidly drawing to ‘ a close, and signs are already apparent of the increased activity which generally precedes the festive season. Christmas claims universal recognition as the one great period of the year, all nations joining in its observance. Yuletide tiaditions and superstitions are handed down from generation to generation, and will continue to be reviewed until the end of time. Owing to opposite seasons Christmas in the Old Country and Christmas in New Zealand are widely different. The log lire, around which the family and their guests foregather, while outside the snow has clothed everything in its mantle of white, provides the setting for the real picture which the mind conjures up when thoughts are focussed on Christmas. In the Homeland Christmas is enjoyed under such conditions. In New Zealand the Christmas spirit has had to seek new forms to express itself. The suni is on the water and the gardens are aglow with flowers, and life does its best to keep pace with the merry march of the summer hours. The beaches are calling and the highroad is at our feet. So the home is closed up, and the young folk are taken oft to the seaside to enjoy themselves and the older folk think that they may a's wel’ do likewise. The immortal Charles Dickens emphasised the real Christmas spirit when lie said: “I have always thought of Christmastime as a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of in the calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open yieir shut-up hearts freely, and -o think of people around them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave and not another race of people bound on other journeys, and I say, God bless it.” Let us, then, cast aside the hundrum of ordinary business life and inculcate a spirit of universal joyouSiess and thanksgiving as is befitting this most hallowed part o' the calendar. Let us, then, join hands with but a single purpose, forgetting selfish ambitions and petty ilispuies and giving full sway to the true meaning of the Christmas spirit,

that “Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men’.’ may reign in deed as well as in word. Thus do we expjess our wish as we extend greetings to our friends, fellow-townspeople, and • readers for this Christinas season.