The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 488, 31 December 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1879.

Tiik year tint ends to-day lias made more history tlian will ever be written ; it is, therefore, with no hope of writing a complete biography that we indulge in the brief retrospect that is clue to our moribund friend Eightecn-Hundred-and-Scveuty-Nine. He came into existence during a season of world-wide depression in things commercial, and snatching the sceptre from the hand of his dead brother, went on for some time making matters worse. But, as the tide cannot ebb for ever, somewhere in his reign, though we cannot indicate the hour, or the month, the future historian will point out low water mark. Our departing friend, whom, for brevity’s sake, we must call 1879, inherited a Treaty of Berlin. Ho declared, however, that he was not bound by what bis predecessor, 1878, and Lord Beaconsfield, had done. Ho showed that Cyprus was no great catch, and that he who reforms Turkey, and be who washes the Ethiop white, have their work to do. Ho remarked that the Koords were a troublesome people, that Turks toll lies, that harems are expensive, and that Sultans are lazy, dense, and incapable—that they are in short Turks, and keep harems. After observing further that Austria was ambitious, Germany jealous, and Bulgaria not overgood at Government, be banded the treaty back to Lord Beaconsfield, with this memo, in a bold hand—“ This is hardly in my line ; besides I have other fish to fry; refer it to my successor, yours truly, 1879.” But although he did not respect the treaties of men, he did respect the traditions of the line of Years to which he belongs. Destiny impels every one of that lino to do something in the Eastern Question. King 1879, therefore, deposed the Khedive by the hand of Bisraark, thus introducing a new character into the drama. Shore Ali he also deposed, and set up the dummy Yakoob Khan, provided with wire-pullers. Then he massacred those wire-pullers, deposed Yakoob Khan, and is now about to leave the Eastern Question in a worse muddle than he found it. Meantime, lie was carrying out another inherited quarrel in South Africa. He made Isandulu the saddest name in our history, and placed Rorke’s Drift side by side with Acre and Thermopylae There also, he deposed a potty king or two. He is suspected of Republican principles, for he has been hard on royalty on the whole, rather harder than it deserves perhaps. He has tried to blow up an Emperor, and to shoot a Kina, and has succeeded in assegaiing a Prince. This last, gentle reader, is the saddest thing he has done. Let us stand thoughtfully by that flat stone, in Zululand, on which is graven a large cross, and the letter “ N,” and think that here, in a petty skirmish in a petty war, fighting on behalf of “ the Nation of Shopkeepers,” fell the heir of the victor of Ansterlitz and Borodino. Think also that at this moment come naked savage may be showing or bartering the very watch which the Little Corporal bought when he was a lieutenant of artillery, and we will be able to realise what eccentric and cruel things 1879 has done. But he has not confined himself to treaties and to royalty ; he has sown plague in Russia, strife in Ireland, and American corn and meat in England, and each country groans under its own peculiar sorrow. But let ns turn from the old world and its sorrows to the new world of the South. Among our neighbors the dying Year has stirred up political perturbation, Embassies, and Reform Bills almost without example. He has also conjured up a hideous development of crime, in the shape of bush ranging, unsurpassed at any previous period of Colonial History. But he has made some atonement for these surly tricks by placing a land mark in history, of which every colonial may think with pride—The Sydney Exhibition. Little did Britain think in her pride and exultation over the •* Great Exhibition ” of 1851, that within thirty years her despised daughter, New South Wales, would invite the world to an equally splendid show within five miles ot Botany Bay. Yet that which none dared to prophesy has come to pass, and 1879 calls all men to behold the tremendous justice of Time. The wicked dream of empire for a man, and a world made for Cprsar, he |ias quenched in the wilds

of Africa, but the noble vision of wealth ami power for -the people, he has conjured np from-the sands of that ahoie vthere a hundred years ago a solitary savage brandished his spear against the landing of Cook. But come nearer home. 1879 has. not forgotten New Zealand. He has given her a now Governor, a new Government, a new Parliament, a new loan, and a now system of taxation. Ho found Sir George Grey in power, and almost despaired of a chance to get him out, and even when, at length. Parliament met, the poor Year feared that he would die before anything was done. The Parliament tried to turn Sir George out, and got turned out itself; then 1870 put his fingers in his ears, for he loved the truth : and when the now House assembled he shut his eyes, for he hated corruption and treachery. And as Bill after Bill was introduced and nothing passed, except hours and months, he set up a piteous wail —“ Oh, geutlmeu leave this talking and lot mo die in peace !” Then he thought how he, 1879, the groat and the feared of all the world, might be worried to death by a handful of nobodies in New Zealand. He remembered the Prince Imperial, and the fellow feeling made him almost regret. When, at last, his persecutors dispersed ,he felt that he was too old to do anything, so while calmly awaiting his end, he wrote liis own epitaph—“ Here lies the Year that didn’t extend the Franchise or Redistribute the Seats, or settle the Native Difficulty.” But let us draw still nearer home, and as we shorten the range of vision, let ns note smaller and smaller things. As the sun shines on the single flower as well as on the continent, so 1879 has attended to little things as well as great. He has brought the railway nearer by ten miles on one side and by twelve on the other, and has promised that his successor shall do more than he. He has improved the Mountain Road, and greatly expedited travelling and the passage of the mails. Ho has greatly improved tiie entrance to tho s Patea River, and has provided a locally-owned steamer to carry on the growing trade. He has started a fresh saw-mill, and enormously increased the size and comfort of our towns by adding splendid buildings, and making streets and footpaths. But lot not this, or any succeeding generation, forget to number among his triumphs the Ingahnpc Road. And now, since the cat may look at the king, let us bid thee farewell, O serene and reverend ’79 ! May we live as earnestly and die as peacefully as thou ! May our puny race be as happy under the dynasty of the Eighties as it has been under thee and thy nine brothers, the Seventies! What pigmies we be in your hands, O yc Years 1 Behold wc boast of killing ye, while ye be killing us ! We rejoice giddily when one of yon approacheth his end, and behold, thousands ol us die before him ! Is there no pity in ye, O ye Years, that ye make ns as bubbles, lit with rainbows, to behold tho glory ot the Universe for a moment, and then to break and be lost in the wave on which wc ride ? But we rebel not, O Time, for we have heard of old how thou eateat up thine off-spring. We are launched upon thy billows, and abide the certain wreck. “Unfathomable sea! whose waves are years ; Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human tears ; Thou shoreless Hood, which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of mortality ! And seek of prey, yet howling on for more, Yomitest wrecks on thino inhospitable shore. Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee, Unfathomable sea ?”