A South American Picture.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2555, 24 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A South American Picture.

A New Zealand farmer haß recently returned from a visit to South America, whither he had gone with an idea to stay, as it was his fatherland. The prospect was not all to his liking, and he returned to our owu colony, strong in the opinion that there is no place like New Zealand, He (fives a very poor account of the Argentine Republic and Chili. The only land worth buying in the latter is in tlio south, where it can be bought at about £2 to £2 10s. per acre ; it will grow fair wheat for two or three years, the average being from 10 to 15 bushels an acre, but the foreign settler " don't seem to make much out of it." A great deal is done in cattle, but sheep do not thrive well, and ; are neglected, while goats can be found everywhere. In the Argentine, matters are described in a still darker colour. The wheat crops, which are growa chiefly by small Italian settlers, return not more than nine bushels an acre. Cattle and sheep do well, and of an estimated total of 56,000,000, about 18,000,000 belong to Irish and Scottish settlers, 8,000,000 to other nations, and the remainder to the Argentine?. The price af a ranch is £2 to £3 per English acre, which the New Zealand farmer thinks is an exaggeration. The sheep, however, are a "scrubby lot," worth less than ss. 6d. each, and produce somewhere about of wool, though on the foreigners' ranches there is a much improved cross-bred animal. Cattle are inferior ; a good beef, weighing 5 cwt dead, would fetch £2 to £2 10s. Horses are small, good, and cheap, and something like 104,000 mares are killed yearly for use as food, the tongues being sent over to England as "ox" tongues. Frozen mutton is shipped to Liverpool and London, where it is sold as New Zealand meat. Coupled with all this, the sheperds who watch the flocks re* quire watching themselves, and "your best man will rob you and look you straight in the face." As this was the impression of the Antipodean farmer, it in no wonder that he came to the conclusion that New Zealand, with bad times occasionally, is better than South America. Notices. pRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. Published for the Special Benefit of NohChurchgokks. True Christian Religion, intelligently under# stood, comes not to add to men's burdens but to remove, them. " For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John iii 17. Its leading doctrines, adapted to the use of this New Age. are summarised as follows—* There is one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity of Love, Wisdom and Operation, and He is the Lord lesus Christ. Saving Faith is to believe in Him. Evils are to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil. Good Works ought to be done, because they are of God and from God, and they ought to he done by man as of himself, but with the belief that they are from the Lord, operating in him by him. There are two things which constitute tke cssence of God—love and wisdom. And there are which constitute the essence of Hit love—to love others out of Himself; to desire to be one with them ; and to make them happy from Himself, The same three constitute the essence of His wisdom : because love, and wisdom in God make one, and love wills these things, and wisdom accomplishes them. (True Christian Religion, No. 43.) The word of God is Divine truth clothed in human language, and adapted to the varied states of the human heart, that thus a man nay know God, and learn to know and do His will. U I» ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed" John viii. 31. "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should i)o unto jou: do ye even-so, unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets. Matt. vii. 8. The Ten Commandments point out what evils are to bo shunned in order that men 'may attain eternal life. ... " That it is not so difficult to lire the life of heaven as if ccmmonly believed is evident from this—that when any thing presents itself that one knows to be insincere and Unjust, to which his mind is disposed, he need not only think that it ought not to be done because it is contrary to the Divine commands. If a man accustoms himself so to think, and from custom derives the habit, be is then by degrees conjoined to! heaven; and in so far as he is conjoined to heaven, tke higher degrees of his mind are opened; and in so far as these are opened he sees what is insincere and unjust; and in so far as he sees these evils they can he shaken off, lor it: impossible that any evil can be shaken off until it be seen. This is a state into which a man may enter from freedom ; for who is not capable from freedom of thinking in'this manner ? Hut when he has made a beginning: all goods are wrought in him by the Lord, and He causes him not only to see evils, but also not to will them, aud finally to become averse to them. This is meant by the Lord's words, uMy yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matt. xi. 30 But it should be known that the difficulty ot so thinking, and likewise of resisting evils, increases in proportion as a man from the will commits evils, for in so far he'becomes accustomed to them, until at length he does not see them, and afterwards loves toera, and frem of love excuses them, and by all kinds - of fallacies confirms them, and declares that they are allowable and good. But this occars with those who in the age of adolescence plunge into evils as ifwithoiit restraint, and at the same time reject Divine things from the heart."—!" Heaven and Hell," No. 533)..

This advertisement, though containing truth for all, is especially published for. the benefit of those who from any cause do not profit by ordinary religious ministrations. Those who approve of the doctrincs hero enunciated, and who desire to assist in the work of disseminating them, are mvitdtosend contributions to Mr W. F. Keen. Treasurer of the Sydney Society ot the - New Church, Carabella Street, North Shore Sydney. The Works of Swedenborg and Minor ,Liter* ature of the New Church can be'obtained from Mr W. Billiard, Bookseller, George-street, Sydney.