ALEXANDRA REFLECTIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2162, 18 May 1886, Page 2

ALEXANDRA REFLECTIONS.

TO THi: KJHTOR. SiK,--rosM')lyan instructive cartoon on New Zealand might bo drawn from the fable of the frog and the hull. Burrowed money has swollen us almost to bursting-point, and we -*till are but tributary to the country of which the bull i.s typical. There are not a few who think wo are dancing while our graves ar<i being d-ig, and who will cordially agree with the leading a i tide in The Waikalo Times of May 11th, that "the groat cur-«e of the world at present ia the contrast between enotniouH wealth and iuimciburable poverty.'* C.it-t an «ye arnund the world for the lands where the fewest heartaches, least oiimo and care, and most health exist, and it will rest on those where hard economy keeps on active population a remove above want. In our own case it is easy to point out ill?, and difficult to provide practical remedies. We a*e heavily weighted, not alone from the large debt incurred, but that almost a generation have been educated under a regime of money and Government expenditure, whose ideari are utterly faUe and pernicious. They look only for largely acquiring and largely spending, have no true ideas of econuiuy, and arc an increasing menace to the future well-doing of the country. The concomitants of such lit ing are poverty, disease, and premature death, and it if well that the more economical, and hone* healthier, country p >pulations should be on their guard lest they are made to contribute relief to the self-imposed poverty and dNense of the cities, whilst the huge wealth acquired in towns is being enjoyed or squandered here, or in Europe. It might bd worth while to take a long cry back, and consider whether we are on the true Jinos of a permanent civilisation at all. Whether we are adapting ourselves to our environment, and acting in sympathy with the immutable laws the world is run upon. Bume of the wisest have said there is much to be rn vied in tho life of the savage. There in at least a true aptitude to bis snr* rounding*, a food-getting intelligence, mv trammelled by anght save pride and its sequence, warfare. It w not difficult to imagine that tho mat savage who ordered another to provide him a piece of hide for the soles of his feet created a divergence, and was the' father of civilisation. Could w« not, in this favoured land we dwell in, inprove on the enforced economy of tin sat age (for be could not live beyond his moan* and nature ia bountiful), by combining economy with recuperation. The broad feature in New Zealand is grasp ami expend. Our natural resources, great though they be, are already enormously diminished and expended oat of all proportion to our age an a nation, and no intelligent attempt is being made to replace them. Recuperation i* not only vital ; it is vitality itself. YejWve destroy without replacing. It is easjrrp prove how fixed the laws of recuperationjpre, and how necessary for human existence that we should lie in sympathy with them. Take health for instance, a ruler of rulers in this world. The healthy rule the World, jjoaaibly not directly, but in effect. Families and nations soon die away, no matter how powerful, where luxury brings disease. Many a so-called noble family in England has been kept up by healthy poverty allying itself with wealthy inanity. The poor of to day are the rich of to-morrow, if they are the healthy. It might .save also a deal of maudlin and useless sympathy with the black and the brown man were we to reason on the same lines. The white man is only increasing by a law of Nature, in those latitudes he is healthily fitted for ; and the brown man is only dying out in those latitudes he has pushed his way to, and where he is unfitted to dwell, or not so adapted to the environment as the white man is. Vice versa, it holds good with the white man. I only instance these to prove that there are inexorable Ilawi which we must put ourselves in obeyance to, and no matter how far away they may appear to be from the subject of the now dwellers in New Zealand, they still point out lessons that cannot be ignored, or if ignored lead to our retrocession and destruction. By your permission, in another letter I will try to explain practically how the foregoing generalities bear on economy and recuperation.— l am, &c, Sillt.

A lady applying for admission to the junior class of an American seminary, being questioned, by the president as to her qualifications, replied, "I ain't much of an airithmetiker, bat lam an elegant grammarist." One oyster may contain a million eggf. The young one floats about for several days, during which it may be carried by currents perhaps 70 or 80 miles, when it falls to the bottom, and remains there till it becomes full grown. Special attention is directed to Messrs Lewis and Simpson's new advertisement in anoth* column. Mr J. S. Ruckland will sell at the Waitoa Yards on Thursday, the 27th inst.. 50 fat steers, t mpty cows, fat covvj, 10 horses, 100 sheep, etc. lhe election of auditors for the Boroueh o Hamilton will take place on the Ist June. Nominations must be in by noon of the 27th inst. A notice by the Te Awamutu pe. »lkeeper appears in another column. The great unreserved draperr sale will be rontinued it the Hamilton Auction Mart, of Satauto; «ext.