The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1875.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 74, 25 December 1875, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1875.

i Onck move 1 s:ss I he 1 2 i:r1 1 ChnsPan Ci -e ■ ■,:! I ><)!:!..• )!,:■; k i, n 11 1! . o wr tip: V-.'l 1 j »I: * ex j.n -I[. and warm feelings engendered ip ];c' , p'm‘.:' willi the tenets of fli: ; i j ’p I■<!,••• > J.hili vye celebrate. “ A Merry j Cliri.'-lmiis” is to-day ;i. household word ! amongst millions of our fellow creatures, | tfi'i’p'il nvp!' Hie surface o!‘ (To globe, I hi climates :! lit I lempira hires of all ! kbuls, it matters not, hov,v\mr, whether it lie under a summer’:-; sun, oi‘ winter'-.; 1 1 ay. tlie same pleasant greeting is given, and uttered in the tongues of all nations. In New Zealand and otlmr colonies, Christmas is right worthily kept, as u rnie. for people have, almost without e:oion, means to celebrate it in some way or oilier, and tin; piteous poverty that )-re vails in' older conn tries has no foothold here. Lone- may sueh lie the case, and when eases of distress arise, ns most l'n at times the ease, in the most pirn.-, pen ms eonnnniiities, mat" onrhearts ;;n 1 purses, he open for Hear relief, in a manner proportionate to the blessings that we enjoy. Kvery sncee'ding Christmas sees great chanys in newly settled places, a in I in few have they been more specially marked than in the I‘e.t.ea district. Only a very few years aeo, Cairn was populated merely by Maoris, and these tenaciously held to their splendid lands, refusing to sdl or part with ariT, though not cultivating them themselves, unless raisin,;; a- few crops of potatoes could be called eulliration. 'Then came the war ami from Ki'temame to Kai-Twi 'iwis a vast battle ground. The fight, at Nuknmaru is one of the events of that strife, the .slaughter of Von Tempsky and his gallant comrades also one of the sad episodes that happened within a few miles from here, and for years no white man’s life war. sale for miles; on miles around. T no changes (lint, tins part of the colony has undergone are almost inconceivable, .and it is hardly credible that now, where murder and it.pile.! formerly stalked, there are almost countless flocks and lierds, well kept farms, buildings equal to those of any in the country of. any other part of New Zealand, and. that the settlers are surrounded not only with all the comforts,but the retin omen t s a'ml luxuries of places that have never echoed back a hostile gun, and ■where a. shot has never been fired in anger. From js.etemarao to Wanganui, a distance of some seventy miles, Kiiiiiiii.iy homesteads and fertile farms extend, and we question much whether, throughout the whole ot the Australian colonies, a more substantially prosperous community could he found than their occupiers. Want is a stranger amongst the settlers, and, in wishini; the compliments of the season, there are no half-starred, ill-clad, homeless poor to prove the greeting to be too often a wanton mockery ot misery and woe. This is the first Christmas a paper has been published in I'atea ; mid any one oven three years ago predicted that such would be the case lie would have been certainly deemed a harmless lunatic, ami would have laugned to scorn for such a prediction. ton it is, however, and, what is more, ire have every hope that lor many hmg years to come, the Path a Mail will have to conform to (be usual custom oi offering' a few remarks with a Christmas flavor about them, as well ns pay the usual compliments to its readers. \V e can neurldy, and without reservation, congratulate tij-e vc^ulci] of t-liv* on tin* future? that lies before them. They are in possession of areas ol the very best land in the colony, land to which the j saving that * : if yon tickle It with aiioeit j will laugh with a harvest, ’ will with

the greatest justice apply; permanent pence may be deemed to be assured and us dir ns Immnn foresight can determine, nothing, but uninterrupted great geed fortune seems likely to wait upon ?belli. Hoping tiiat ibe present bright pro-meets may remain undimmed in ibe future, but on t!ie contrary, rather be ■y: n more than realist d, we in all truth is woi;d ly wish our readers u A himmy (;ukistm.\s and a Happy mv Vkau.”