POOR RELATIONS.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 68, 31 December 1881, Page 248

POOR RELATIONS.

A NEW YEAR'S STORY,

(Wkittbn for the "Observer.") Bl C. O. MONTEOSE.

Introduction". Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring out the false, ring in the true. The story is a contrast of the Old and New ; a tale of England and New Zealand ; of despairing poverty and ill-gotten wealth ; of straggles for bare existence and profusion and covetousncss. We, who have seen life in many phases both in the Old and the Now World, have realised the contrast between the effete social system and the young, vigorous, hopeful life of the colonies ; between conventionalism, caste, and the lingering remnants of feudalism on the one hand, and progress, fair avenues to social advancement, wealth, and manly independence on the other. Hope points before to show the bright to-morrow ; Let us forget the darkness of to-day. So sang Henry Russell in the old days, -when the colonies were comparatively in their infancy, and the refrain has been sung ever since from the deck of the emigrant ship, beside the camp-fire of the digger, in the shepherd's hut and the bush homestead, and in lands where the foot of a ■white man had never trod before. Here there is •work for honest labour, and plenty that smiles upon our pains, if we Avill but rightly use the great gifts that a beneficent Creator has made ready to our hands. But if we would do so, and build up in this country a free, enlightened, and prosperous nation, let us take heed, while there is yet time, that the lessons of the past be not forgotten, and that we do not bequeath to future generations those evils which we left the old world to escape.