PROGRESS

Tuapeka Times, Volume 1, Issue 14, 16 May 1868, Page 3

PROGRESS

By Sam Jones.

I have almost a feeling of reverence for Yankee " go-aheadism." Ido like to see an individual or a nation cutting out as if they meant it — every blow telling, no sleep-headedness, but down with a will. Despite all my leanings in this respect Yankeewards, I am no Yankee. The spirit of dreaminess will come over me at most inappropriate times — the taps of my pick getting fainter as some train of thought gets stronger, until roused by "Hallo! gone to sleep, Sam?" I start again, calling forth the caution, " Take it easy, old man." Thinking on progress, I forgot to make progress. My fancy, conjuring up the mines of Ophir, or something equally foreign to my work, I forgot what is of a hundred times more importance to me — the mines of Tuapeka. Still, it is an interesting question, What sort of diggings was Ophir ? Had they any miners' rights, wardens, rushes, water races, bobbies, and grog chandlers ? Did old Jewish ship owners spread puffing reports? Did Jewish youths rush to Ophir to make a pile ? History is silent, but I suppose there was a little of all these things. We may fancy a Jewish mother weeping over some lost Absolom, who went away to Ophir years before, and never sent her the scrap of a pcn — said Absolom, his Jewish robes tucked up, cutting away over the hills for a new rush, hunting after the luck he never catches, and little thinking of his old mother at home. Then we may have Absolom and hiß mates pegging out a claim, and sinking another "duffer ; " or may be down on good gold, and having their claims "jumped" by some Benjamites, the "Tips" of Israel. There would have been some pretty stories to tell had Ophir been blessed with a newspaper. But how Absolom would proceed to extract his gold, whether he knew anything of a cradle, a "long torn," ground sluicing, or quicksilver, or whether he picked it with his fingers, is hard to say. If his old workings could be dropped on, water races might pay. The old Jews thought they knew everything, but they ■would tinker round a claim much as they tinkered round a farm— more fuss than progress. Wouldn't it have driven all matrimonial speculations out of Ruth's head if, when she went to glean in the fields of Boaz, she had seen a reaper clattering round it, and if Boaz could have found a steam thrasher tumbling down its throat, it wovdd have given him a lesson in mechanics. What would David have thought of a piano or an English rifle, or Jehu of a railway train ? Oh ! yes, the world is making progress in the arts and sciences, but nevertheless though a Jew now may know more, we have reason to think David was worth a gross of them. Ophir, if not wrought as systematically, might have been as well behaved a diggings a3 Tuapeka. If Boaz could not plough, reap, and thrash as well and quickly as farmers now, he had just as good a chance to get to heaven. If Ruth had not a sewing machine, she was a more sensible young woman than many who have. Progress is a fine thing, a very fine thing. Progress in the arts and sciences is the result of the great cooperative society of all mankind. Progress heavenwards is an individual affair, and though sadly overlooked, much the more important progress of the two.