The Temuka Leader. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1878.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 99, 27 November 1878, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1878.

Man is a strangely constituted being. The truth of the saying, " Out of the In-art proceed evil thoughts," &c, is ever being strikingly exemplified in what is daily taking pi.ice amongst us. The spirit of envy hoLIs often the supreme place in the heart, and brings forth its bitter fruits in various ways, individually as well as collective!} 7 . This is the case wi'h the whole human race. Take (he wild savage, for instance Has not envy a r 'd ami-it-ion made him dissatisfied with the wide domain that nature has provided fur him, and mrv'o him master of all he sees ; and unhappy because a neighboring chief lias a life more territory than he has. Take the most civilised nation on the face of the earth and .ve find amongst them the same principle of discontent with their lot pervading their whole nature There are those who are as unh.-'ppy at the success of others as they are at any great calamity befalling themselves. Strange that such unkind thoughts should have a place in the breast of human livings who wore created to love. Yet so it is. Some glory in mis'-hief and disaster, even although such mischief shou'd unfavorably affect themselves. A clear illustration of this love of mischief came to our notice the other day in the form a short paragraph which appeared in t!i- Christchurch ' Press.' An individual lining in Timaru appears to take great pleasure iu describing the disastrous effect of the waves upon the foreshore near the newly commenced harbor works. We wonder what pleasure it can give anyone to see the laudable efforts of his fellow-townsmen to improve the condition of their -hoines frustrated. "What advantage will it be to the writer if the sea shou'd wash away the whole of the landing service 1 Does he wish to see the harbor m orks a failure? Does bethink such paragraphs will please those who may live at a distance, and whose interests may be different from his ? If so, we tell him he has missed his mark. A fair and candid discussion of the merits or demerits of the case, whether or not the people, of Timaru should proceed to lay out a large sum of money in forming a barber at Tirmru, or whether it would not be wiser to examine other localities before doing so, might be all right and proper, and it was not ont of place for anyone to examine and expose the weak points of such a proposal. The people of Timaru having elected to proceed with the work, we trust few will be found in or out of Timaru, who, like the writer of the paragraph referred to, will fake pleasure in prognosticating evil. "We in this distri-ct, much ns we need and inu. h as we wish for a In-' or for the cheap and speedy transit .of the rapidly increasing produce of our lands, have no wish to build a harbor upon the ruins of a neighbor's works. Our Timaru friends have LIOO.OCO to hpend, ami they believe they ■mb it *'-. they c-tghj, to d-\

CouM wo for a moment entertain a wish

that they may not be the contrary, we wish them -.ill success in this enterprise now tiiat they have entered upon it, and we canrot lie'p denouncing the man as a coward who could so greedily iiv ■:>\) at the little accident on which he hi'ses his correspondence. T K e long and trying conflict the people of T'maru have had to endure makes even their enpiii.es> wish t. at they may not be disappointed, He is no patriot who could take pkas'ire in seeing 1,100,000 op his country's money cast into the sea and wasted. Mu« h ra'her must every true colonist pr;iy that this undertnking may accomplish the end its promoters have in view, viz. the prosperity of Timaru and the prosperity and progress of the whole district. Whether or not tliev have iidopted the right plan to accomplish the end in view, whctln r or not their work will he accomplished, it is not for us to sny, but we do hope it wi.l not be a failure, and as yet we see nothing to lead us to think thnt it will. With the near approach of the time when a report upon the feasibility if the Mil fori 1 Lagoon project for a harbor, and the unwavering conviction that before six months are past works will be commenced in that locality we yet say we wish no evil to our neighbors. Why should we 1 Live and let live is our motto. Even were Milford Harbor and Timaru Harbor both in existence there will, before many years, be work foi both. That admirable speech of the Honorable Matthew Holmes the other day, on the subject cf a National Agricultural Association, speaks volumes for the capabilities of Canterbury, and particularly South Canterbury, to supply the markets of the world with sound and wholesome grain. No limit can be placed to the amount that can be produced witn proper appliances and cheap transit to market. The more harbors the more will the district prosper. .Long railway carriage can never compete with transit by sea, yet we believe the one will make traffic for the other. Our ambition to see Milford commenced is strengthened by the f.ict tnat in a couple of years the largest vessels that visit our coasts could enter and take away the produce, while it is quite evident the outlet by Timaru will not be available for many years to come. The one is a w< rk half accomplished by nature, and only requires an expenditure of some sixty to eigety thousann pounds to bring it into operation, while the other has no natural features whatever to assist the work, and the enormous amount of money that, will be required to be expended before anything like a nationally useful work can be completed may well make our friends shrink under the heavy responsibility which they have taken upon themselves We hear that the tradespeople in Timaru are disrppoiuted because the money is not beginning to flow in such copious streams as they had expected, and that grumbling and discontent is the order of the day. With such grumb'ers we hnvt no sympathy. Such men are no strength to any community. All seek their own, none another's good. There would lie few Sir John Franklins, few Garibaldis, an 1 few Livingstones in the world if all men were imbued with this spirit of selfishness. To such the stirring orations of old ami noble-minded Romans repeated to them every day as a grace before breakfast, might bring a blush upon their cowardly cheeks, and make them hide their diminished and brainless heads.