The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1890

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3699, 31 December 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1890

The brand new year'begins tomorrow, and those who in the past have seen many of them will - uo place an undue reliance upon the changes and chances of 1891. The hopes and fears, the struggles and the trials of the old year will be carried forward into the new one, and if past experience tempers them a little we shall make as muoli out of the coming year as we can reasonably expect, The past twelve months has been one in which nations have happily been free from war, famine, and pestilence, but Europe is still armed to the teeth, and oppressed peoples still groan under the heavy cost of gigantic armaments, the cost of which is wrung from their hard earned wages. The battlo of the weak against the strong, of the oppressed against the oppressors, lias been fought in the old world by labor organisations, and the new world of which we form a part, and which is happily free' from the millstone which clings to the neck of the old, gives them itß sympathy, In the ne if countries of the oarth there is comparative freedom and prosperity, and an open field where the wrongs of the old world may in time be redressed. Perhaps, one of the greatest facts of the old year is the census of the United . States, which now totals a count of over sixty millions of people, and gives to that great country, taking the character and resources of its population into account, a premier position amorist the nations oil the face pf the globe' America is rapidly becoming a para mount poyyer which' will in time dictate terms fo the old prld. Our own mother country,' outgrown numerically and geographically by its American offspring, lias made a good record for the year 1890, and maintained the prestige of its great name, For- nearly five years it has been . ruled by Conservative statesmen, and this rulfl eeeiiis uow mora firmly established tliaii ever in securing the peace, honor, and prosperity'' of the i Kingdom, There are periods in the history of any great nation when a conservative rule is absolutely essential, ,pd few can question the advantages wjjjclf U j},as pfiiiferred on Great Britain diil'% wf'vjjMt qaiupunial period. The demon of innovation will; no doubt, in due time be let loose again, but in the interim the Kingdom is undoubtedly increasing in strGHsth' Here in New Zealgid that particular demon is unchained, Jjuj w trust only for a time, Common senqe will prevail hfp in the long rap,' as jt Ws fqne in "'6 old epuptry, and wo jijay even !iW it Hiiiyise and reckless changes 41i W6d conservative. influences. uZ" 18 to our own doors we.can look forward . with satisfaction to the new year, ; for Masterton has reason to hope i for some' measure of prosperity from i 1891. For several years' past the' town has Buffered from a drain .of i men and money to feed tho bush , districts,' but the latter settlements ' aronow sufficiently developed to, in their turn, give the town a helping 1 felauf to beccw a sduroe|o| j

strength to it. One evil fromwliioli the town suffoted was the speculative settlement which arose under Mr Mlance s land administration, when hundreds of residents took up sections \yituout having the moans to com-, plete their purchases or to', clear their propovtiea, and . with no prospect of being able to live on the land, ini whioli they 1 invested, This evil is happily a thing of the past; though it Js Quite possible that our new Parliament will be equal to some new method of land settlement which will prove equally unwise,;We are.a little afraid' of our new Parliament, but even if it proves mischievous wo shall get another lucid interval by and by when the: colony returns 1o its sober senses. Our sympathies are with the gonuine workers and toilers, who, in the bush field or garden, malte the earth bring forth its inoreuse; with those men too, whose mission it is to minister to the higher spiritual needs of the people arid to train aifd educate tho many thousands of young children who will make the great New Zealand nation of the next century. To all the working bees in the New Zealand hive, to the men and women who are doing their duty to tho iolony, by the district in which they live, by their families and by their neighbors we wish in all sincerity' "A HAPPY NEW YEAR,"