The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11. LUCKY NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 14 March 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11. LUCKY NEW ZEALANDERS.

We read of a famine in Japan, a revolution in Russia, the trouble in China, the awful mine disaster in France, with few qualms. We are thrilled when a local citizen breaks his leg, or a " sensational bolt" ocIcurs in our streets. It is safe to say that although the recent hurricanes which swept some thousands of natives at Tahiti and o;her islands to their death, and the French mining disaster which accounted for over a thousand deaths, may have momentarily affected us, the leturn of the New Zealand football team ail'ected us considerably more. There is starvation for thousands, fire, flood, and hurricane in Austialia, an awful mine disaster in France, murder in Russia, war in the Philippines, disaffection in British Africa, a native war in German Africa, and great and terrible events elsewhere. And we, in our small corner, read of them, not realising their awful import to the people affected, safe from such influences, ai.d hardly as thankful for our merciful immunity as we might be. There is no country on earth at the moment where the people have deeper cause for gratefulness than this country. The " great events " we _ chronicle have but the faintest thrill in them, and we have a happy knack of magnifying events that would be regarded as insignificant in other countries. If the heart grieved for things the eye did not see,! then we would be very miserable, but humanity is so constituted that it can smile the day after an earthquake, cat its dinner with heartiness during a revolution. If we ever give a thought to the possibility of a catastrophe within our gates, it wouldn't worry us long. An earthquake shakes down our chimneys—tomorrow we re-build and laugh over it. If we lived in fear of the earthquake that would topple the whole house about our ears, wo should live a very uncomfortable life. We can't foresee the terrible events of the future and the terrible events to come. Time heals the wounds in a remarkably short period. We read of GOO people being crushed and • burnt to death in an" American theatre. This doesn't prevent us from attending the theatre A terrible tram accident in Auckland doesn't affect the revenue of the Dunedin or Christchmch trams. A season of many drownings doesn't decrease the number of boating parties. It is a mercy that we so soon forget. But iu New Zealand it is the greatest of all mercies that we have so few catastrophes that are best to forget,