Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, December 31, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1018, 31 December 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, December 31, 1881.

JFe shall sell to no man Justice or Right; We shall deny to no man Justice or Riyht; We shall defer to no man Justice or Right.

Sages tell us that the ultimate success of any given project depends largely upon the way in which it is begun; and with this wise saw operating -on our minds, we cannot more profitably employ the remaining hours ’twixt this and the beginning of the new year, than to call to remembrance cestain things which, to those who are spared to see it through, must have a potential influence for good or evil on their lives.

But, before we presume to reckon upon the coming days, is it not wisdom to reflect on those that are gone ? On this last day of the “ old year,” as all years are poetically called, Man stands, so to speak, on the threshold of another world. Though all the epochs of time —as the minutes make up the hours, and the hours multiply the years—place us in this position, there is something in the last moments of an expiring year that exerts a sway over our faculties, and causes reasonable' men and women to think with more earnestness than is usually the case. There is some good in the worst of us, which, possibly, only requires opportunity or encouragement to blossom and bear fruit. So, also, there is an element of evil in the best of us, which, in its turn, waits upon temptation, to spread its branches o’ef the world. But he must be a bad man indeed who can permit the present hallowed time to pass by unheeded, even though he has little cause for self-congratulation. And if his own examination brings no relief to an o’er-charged conscience ; if he cares not to exhume the sorrows, and trials, and temptations of the past year, and to place them on the pedestal of his memory as sign-posts indicating the way to a better life in the year to ■come, he may not, possibly, be unmindful of others —“ of those true “ friends gone before us, which none “can e’er forget.” It is a gratifying quality and function of the mind that retrospection brings its own reward and consolation. The retrospect may be of joy and gladness, or more likely of grief and disappointment; but if self-improvement follow, the halting seasons of our lives will produce good results. Those amongst us who have not been called on to soothe the dying hours of some one near and dear to them, may “ rejoice 41 with those who do rejoice, and weep “ with them that weep.” But if one’s own hearth has not thus been made desolate, what of those whose hearts are still throbbing with mournful memories, and who can no comfort find but in the graves of their buried hopes

and loves? Well, indeed, may we check our maddening, onward course, and enquire—

“ How many terfbs this year hath dog! What home’s are filled with Desolation’s fearful calm! The chairs are vacant where the forms we loved So oft reposed, where still their semblance chains our fixed and fond delusion.” * * * ■“Many a garden, whose luxuriant green And laurell’d bowers the sunbeams loved to grace, _ . In weedy ruin is decaying now: ■ q The hands it welcomed with-rewarding bloom, Are iced by death, and ne’er can "tend it more.” Few there are who cannot appropriate these lines with a painful significance of suffering and loss. How many who entered with gladsome hearts on the year now about to close, have been called away ? How many who are permitted to see the rising of to-morrow’s sun will be here to see its setting, twelve months hence ?

“ But hark! From yonder dome Into Eternity the day is toll’d. How hollow, dread, and dismal is the peal To Heaiven its vast account now rolling up.” And now that the sands of Time are running flemri with an unerring certainty of result, may we not ask ourselves in what way we may help each other to correct the errors of the past ? Cannot we follow Shakspeake’s advice, and “Do as adversaries do in “ law; strive mightily, but eat and “ drink as friends ?” One of the most inexplicable enigmas in life is that, while we all profess to be working together for a common good, we are figuratively cutting each other’s throat, or trying to do our neighbour all the harm we can —-anything, in fact, so long as there is some .pecuniary profit attached to it. The present would appear to be an exceptionally fitting time in which to shape a course for the future that will bring us more satisfaction, when we scan our actions at the end of another year. We say year, advisedly, but all times and seasons are the same to him does no wrong.

“We live in deeds, not years : In thoughts, not breaths : In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count the time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”

Doubtless, most of the worst side of our nature springs from infirmities which we do not sufficiently attempt to control. Thus, what might be a good action, or series of good actions, in a certain individual, is largely counteracted by some little vice of the existence of which, he, probably, is the only one ignorant. The consequence is that the good he dispenses with one hand, he undoes with the other, for—

“ What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe ?”

As a rule there is too little time given to a periodical—to say nothing of a daily—retrospection of the effect our example, not our precept, has on those around us. The ever-pressing necessities of the present go-a-head, fast living age so enslave man to himself, that he has no time, and less inclination, to trouble about his fellows. The philosophy of the present day is “ Every man for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost.” And this is observable in every grade of society. No trade or calling is free from the taint in a greater, or lesser degree. “ From the Minister down to the Clerk of the town,” all are alike oblivious—as far as the effect of their actions is concerned—to consequences. We are all, in fact, so thoroughly engrossed with our own affairs, that, so long as we succeed in our undertakings, our neighbour may be done to death ; and a decent burial takes him away at once, both from our sight and our recollection. Did we strive to live more in the future than we do ; did we even attempt to live a little less for ourselves, and a little more for others, we should be a happier and more contented people. To-morrow we shall take the first step on the homeward march. To-morrow will be unlifted another drop scene that now hides from our sight things yet to be revealed. On the good use we make of those things, will depend, not only our own happiness, but that of others. It is true wisdom, therefore, to begin the New Year well, and act well our parts, for —

“ Soon, perchance, may fall A curtain; whose unfolding darkness brings Oblivion o’er the universe decay’d.”