CHRISTMAS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1281, 23 December 1884, Page 2

CHRISTMAS.

Before this paper is again issued the holy and festive season of Christmas will have come and gone. In all Christian countries it is a season of rejoicing, and there is none in which it ought to be more so than in these southern dependencies of the British Empire. In the old countries of Europe frost and snow and rain characterise this season ; here We bask in the rays of a midsummer sun, and enjoy the blessings of a delightful climate. Here, Nature yields to us her choicest gifts ; all the products of a bountiful soil are just ready for our use ; the landscape wears its most beautiful robe, and nothing is wanting to please the eye or gratify our desires. In the old lands from which we sprang there is still abject poverty, and perchance miserable wretches are perishing of starvation. On this morning, when the great Christian world is rejoicing, thousands rise who know not where to get their breakfast, and experience the pangs of hunger and want. We have been complaining of hard times in this colony for some years past, and want of employment has undoubtedly deprived many a home of some of the comforts of civilized life. Still we believe that absolute want is seldom experienced here, and that the squalid miseries felt by the wretched inhabitants of large cities in the world is entirely unknown. We have, therefore, everything to make us feel happy in this colony. We have a productive soil ; a beautiful climate ; free institutions, such as few nations possess ; we are the makers of our own laws, the masters of our own destiny as a nation ; and, though we feel the commercial depression from which most countries are suffering at present, there can be no doubt but that the cloud will soon pass away, and that the sunshine of prosperity will again shine brighter than ever. This colony cannot long remain depressed. It productiveness and natural resources are too great to allow it to stay in an impecunious state. But ibis is not an article dealing with political economy. We are dealing with the present season, which is one of festivity, rejoicing, and, above all,charity! the time for us to think of our duties to the Author of our Being, as well as to our fellow-men. However, there is no harm in being reminded of the obligations we are under to the great and bountiful Giver of all things, to feel that He has bestowed on us gifts denied to others, for such reflections cannot fail to arouse our better nature, and induce us to realise more fully the end for which we exist, With these few remarks we wish our readers u A Merry Christmas, and many happy returns of the season.”