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The New Zealand Evangelist

Phenomena Of The Month

Phenomena Of The Month.

October, 1848, will long be remembered in this settlement. Earthquakes are not like the storms of page 178 winter, annual visitations, and hence beyond some very slight vibrations, we have felt no return of these awful phenomena. We have had, however, some severe storms of wind and rain, followed in some localities by very high floods. In the Hutt, these floods threaten to be more destructive than all the earthquakes they have experienced. Many of the houses were filled a foot deep with water. One or two more such floods, it is said, would sweep away the new bridge, endanger the Wesleyan Chapel, and render Mr. Swainson's house uninhabitable. These evils, we are informed, have been either caused, or greatly aggravated, by the settlers filling up the natural water-courses with fallen trees and brushwood. It is not our province to discuss the clearing of land, or the principles of drainage; but our religion inculcates such principles as “Not slothful in business.” “Be thou careful to know the state, &c.” “Wisdom is profitable to direct.” “He will guide his affairs with discretion.” And looking at the fearful devastation which the river has produced, if the causes assigned are the true ones, it occurred to us, that both the settlers and the authorities might ponder with advantage the reflections of the Hebrew sage, (Pro. xxiv. 30—34.) as he went by the field of the slothful, and the vineyard of the man void of understanding.

For three long months the Tararua range of mountains has been constantly covered with a mantle white as wool; but now Spring, breathing soft gales from the warm sunny north, has dissolved the snows, and the mountains are lifting their green heads to the sky. Life, vegetable and animal, is strong in forests, fields, and gardens. The husbandman is committing precious seeds of every kind to the bosom of the earth, in the confident hope, with God's blessing, of a plentiful return, when the winds of autumn shall breathe over the fields; and he will hardly be disappointed.

Young readers! remember, this is the spring time of your existence, the most important period of your page 179 life; if you lose it in idleness, or spend it sowing the seeds of sin and folly, no future diligence will fully compensate your losses. Of all other seasons of life,—

“This is the season fair of living well,
The path of glory, or the path of hell.”