THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1746, 29 June 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“A. man-may jest and tell the truth.” SOBAGB. I *hi»k it la one of Cteorge Eliot's characters m' The Mill on the Floss/ who makes life a misery/by her store of proverbs, and < blind adherence to them Of all those rnhSty old; dnst bins crammed with the ashea of our ancestors' wisdom, * Early to bed aind early to rise’ ia the most venerable and the monldest. •• Scores of boys and girls have been blighted in their youth by its promises, and all the health, the wealth and the wisdom guaranteed by it would be bo them an inadequate recompense for the abbreviated sleep of their youth. A proverb is the worst sort of a tyrant; a Herd or Czar may be .stabbed or shot, or dynamited, or at the worst you can emigrato ahd thuS relieve yourself of him, but anhnperaorial entity like a proverb there if no killing or dodging. It is no use pointing out that there oaii be no special virtue in the early hours before the world is aired, such a proposition is scouted as rank heresy by those Medea and Persians', who rigidly adhere to the customs of their ancestors. These were forced by the absence of other illuminating medium than rushlights to go to roost with sun, and therefore rise with it. Every human being wants a certain ampunt of sleep, but hardly'any two the same amount. Eight _hours is hafdly enough for some, three or four ample for others, aiid itAihard to say which is more unpleasant and more unhealthy to rise before you have had your allowance, or to lie dog-napping after having had your fine sleep. Most of the literary work of the world is done between 9 or 10 and two or three at night, and probably three out of four men of letters could do nothing in the early morning before the cobwebs are swept from their brains. ■ .

. Another mouldering relic of ‘ the Dark Ages ’ is * A rolling stone gathers no moss/ Whether in its literal or its symbolical sense this is a monument of absurdity. Moss may add to the beauty of a stone, but distinctly detracts from its usefulness , and the contradictory axiom * Home-keeping folk have ever homely wits/ points to the ' advantage of rolling in preventing the brain from being overgrown with moss. The rolling stone prejudice was once supreme in England, and still plays the tyrantrin a great part of the country districts. A man from the next parish was regarded withsuspicion, a foreigner was the very devil. The great unpopularity of the individual Englishman abroad is due to the depth to which this belief is ingrainedin bis nature. OnCe every parish formed a guild whose members were jointly responsible for the misdeeds of each, and a stranger after one night had to find local sureties for his behaviour, and the caution engendered by this Custom still prevails. ‘ Yon’s a stranger, Dills ’eave ’arf a brick at him/ is still in many places the stranger’s welcome. And yet no country has been so indebted for her glory apd success to the. stranger and foreigner as England. The solidity and stolidity of the genuine Englishman had to bo grafted with the daring of the Dane, the chivalry and organising power of the Norman, and the poetry and dash of the Kelt, before the British Empire or English literature was possible. The Englishlanguage is probably the richest of all tongues, but if it be, it owes its wealth to a Napoleonic thoroughness in levying contributions from every language under the sun, much in the same way as English wealth ia an ocean into.' which every nation pours /its tributaries./ The dislike ?of individual Englishmen engendered by this narrowmindedness is not confined to them, “but Extends to England herself, and is a serious, source of danger to her. Even those continental nations which have been indebted to her in the past for their very national existence have no love for her as shown lately in the case of Portugal. Travel has of late years wonderfully smoothed some of the branches of the English oak, but the moss of insular prejudice still adheres' to the trunk. V :* * * - * •»

It is so long since I have seen any news from the outside world that my remarks on the Armenian question are now probably out of date. The last telegrams I saw hinted that the Sultan was obstinate and that Great Britain was commissioned by the Powers to bring him to reason.’ Busoian covets Armenia, Prance has always looked on herself as the heir ;of Syne, So it is possible, though hardly probable, that they might trust England where neither would trust the Mother. When will England learn, however, that it is a hopeless task to prop up the Turk? No English Government will ever again venture a war in defence of the Turk, even to save Constantinople from the Bussians. Turkish promises of reform have been tried over and over again with the same result. The last war plainly pointed out England’s true course. .While subject to Turkey the Bulgarians ever looked to the Czar as their only saviour, since they have been independent they have shown a decided objection to exchanging their free constitution for the blessings of Bussian autocracy. Why not try the same plan in Armenia ? Or is it that Bussia will not consent ? She would not only lose the tCvetsioh of Turkish Armenia, but her own Armenian subjects, now restive under the attempts to Bussiauise them by prohibiting the use of their language, would always hanker after union with their brothers and, co-religionists. This seems the only .possible' explanation of the half--hearted plan the three Powers are wasting so much misplaced energy in persuading the.Porte,to adopt. . i ... ->'■ * .«• # n,- ■ ’ The seizure of the Midland Bailway by 'the Government for breach of contract will /at-’any ratO bring an old squabble to a decisive issue. The Company has stood in the way of settlement for a long time, the large amount, of land granted them being locked up. • Every year they have come , asking new concessions, most of which have been granted them and it was high time to take a decided stand with them. No doubt the Ministry are acting on legal advice, and if their adviser he Six* F*. Stout, ae generally “understood by all accounts, , they could not have a sounder lawyer. sThe weak points in their position appears to be the Premiere proposal, last session, to agree tc tor guaranteed debentures in place of the land they, still hold, and the fact that Arbitration is provided for in the contract in case of disputes, and umpires were actually appointed op both sides. These failed ta appoint a referee, and if the failure be due to influence from either of the disputants, no doubt in any subsequent proceedings such will weigh against that side. The Premier, as contended by the company, in introducing last session’s Bill urged that it was necessary if the colony were to keep good faith; it was however rejected by the House, which shows a majority did not think so; §till his language will probably prejudice the New Zealand case. To outsiders the company appears to have been playing a game of bluff all along, and

successive Ministries to have weakly yielded. In any case, win or lose, we may expect a loan for the connection of the Railway by Government. The initial mistake was in ever a iopting the Land Fraud System. Financially the Railway is a fraud and will he for the next half-centuary j politically it was a necessity in view of the Canturbury League of Robbers. lapyx.