HARD TIMES

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 48, 26 February 1864, Page 6

HARD TIMES

(Prom the Dunedin Leader') Johu Bull does uot abandon his presumptive right to grumble at everything and everybody, even when he settles clown as a colonist in some fresh and fertile region of the earth. Locate him in the fairest and sunniest clime on earth, under the clearest of shies, and amidst the loveliest landscapes, and he will daily repeat his old complaint about the severity and changeableness of the weather, ancl the '* terrible tameness" of nature around him. Surround him with all the elements of national prosperity, oj>en up to him the most alluring prospects, and still he will be oppressed Avith a heavy sense of his responsibilities, still will he find reasons for anticipating the Avorst. Restore him, in a \vorcl, to the Paradise of Adam, aud he Avill at once commence his old time of bad times — bad times. It must surely be OAving to this seemingly incurable disposition in the mental constitution of our countrymen that Aye find the old threadbare complaints quite as general in this favored country as at home. Bad times, bad prospects, bad weather, &c, are topics of daily street-conversation here, just as they ahvays are in Britain. There are times even when this spirit of grumbling takes possession of the entire community — and becomes a kind of severe epidemic. The present is just such a period. The complaints are louder and the. grumbling more intense in toAVii than usual. One can hardly turn a corner of a street Avithout being almost worried to death -with dismal accounts of the depression of trade, the unsettled state of politics, the exodus from the country, and the certain ruin impending over . every distinct interest of the community! The tone of public feeling in reference to public and individual affairs is indeed extremely loav just now. Men's hearts seem to be failing them for fear, as if some mighty calamity Avas about to happen, some pestilence or famine about to moAV down the population of the country. But Avhy so ? What is the cause of this state of things ? Tliere is no immediate cause for this unusual despondency in the public mind. There are no facts which demonstrate that a really profound and lasting adversity can overtake a country so eminently favored in it's temporal conditions as this. It is the temper ofthe mind which originates and maintains these epidemics more than anything else, and in our case we venture to say it is especially so. "The world is too -much Avith us," says "Wordsworth in one of his fine sonnets. Hardness of mind is the potential cause of hardness in the times. '-"All "times are -hard to that; man to Avhose, mart the : finer aiid, nobler .'sentiment are daily strangers.;, , Constant occupation in the every day drudgery of 'life, is in itself the most real misfortune and adversity. - To the man of- that disposition the most 'elevating possessions .', of. ; ;hiimaniiy , j namely; high toned intellectual pp owers are valueless* vas: .> withered leaves. hChange and elevate the l uispdsition, and ! ; !dpubt, and despair, 'Hy instiantly away. ' This is what, we^want^ accomplished \ iii the public mind of. Otago, and indeed

.the disease and its effects,- are plain ; to the most casual, observer. The head and the heart it is, and not the merely outward, conditions of our situations, that requirer.to be renovated. Moral feeling underlies all human action j and men act, -therefore, precisely as .they think aad -feel. If they complain of gloomf circumstances, <Sso,, when around them oil ovei'y hand; ; lie tbe materiali§ :bf ;pfeManent prosperity,, it is because theb? feelings and ;senti* ments are kept a lower level than a bealtby pbilosopby would dictate, Ths Hard times of wblcb the grumbler' complains.are in nine eases out of ten tfie times Ahe muhes for himself, not finds, - .There are two principles upon wbich tlie stability of all trade and all commerce depends, without which political life dies out, commerce ceases, and adversity creeps on apace. They are simply confidence and mutual trust | between man and man. The hardness j of disposition, however, of which we have been speaking, prevents" the growth of these sentiments. It puts a f barrier between men and makes them j distrustful. It magnifies trifling and j temporary difficulties into serious cala- 1 mities, and denies the existence of the fairest element of success. If, then, the bad times are ever to be changed into good times, there must be an extensive diffusion of confidence and trust throughout the entire community. And wifch this, the diffusion of a spirit of political activity. One of the most effective causes of bad times or depression of public spirit, arises from a helpless G-overnment. Whenever there is political deadness and stagnation, there declining prosperity and universal discontent are certain to be found. Men worthy of the name, instead of sitting down gloomily over the bad times, engage resolutely in the work of making them better than they are. If the times are bad at present, we may just as well clearly understand that we have just ourselves to blame for it. A useless and cumbrous system of Government, and absence of political life, are the two great evils under which this land is now labouring. Remove them, and the pretext for the now universal complaint of bad times will cease to be.