"Civis" on Hard Times.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1158, 25 January 1884, Page 2

" Civis " on Hard Times.

Times cannot be so cruelly . bad after all. Look at the " amusements " record for the holiday season. " Youth," the Pickersgill panorama, and the Kennedys must have been raking m amongst them from £100 to £200 a night. Thegrosstakmgs of the Kennedys alone on the Bums Statue night were close on £100. The attendance at the Caledonian games surpassed all precedent, the gate money amounting to £1063, as against £873 the previous highest total ; the Hauroto carried between 800 and 1000 excursionists to Oamaru on New Year's day ; there are to be two trips to the Sounds instead of one as heretofore, and the Union Company even talk of sending one of their bi» boats with holiday makers to Fiji and Samoa. If these are the signs -of depression what are the signs of prosperity? It is true that 62 persons m New Zealand " filed " during the last ten days of 1883, but this rush merely illustrates the popularity of the late Bankruptcy Act. For some time past the word has been passed round, " If you want to file do it before the 31st." lam inclined to regret now that I didn't file before the 31st myself. Probably I could have made money by it. However that is now spilt milk. There is no motive to file under the new Act, so far as lean make out. Coming back, however, to the question of amusements, . I don't grudge the money we spend m making life bright by music, the drama.athletics, or travel. There is no vice m these forms of pleasure-taking, and the love for them is a more respectable sentiment than the sordid appetite for mere getting and keeping, Beyond due limits thrift ceases to be a virtue. On this point, apparently, my festive fellow-colonists for the most part; agree with me. They will make life agreeable at Christmas and New Year, if even they have to '• file " to do it.