3rd Jan, We take this opportunity of wishing all our readers a Happy New Year. On Monday the last year of the Nineteenth Century began, a-century in which the world has made more material progress than any of its "predecessors. May this closing year of the century be emphatically'a good one for us all; may the war in South Africa be over and "peace, unity, and concord" re established from the Zambesi to Cape Agulhas long before next Christmas long before next Christmas too may the United States have pacified the Philippines; and may the Great Exe hibition at Paris, which is to be the great event of the year, not be disturbed by the sound of cannon fired in anger in any quarter of the globe. Wishes crowd upon us; we can after all summarise them best in the good old formula that never grows old—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.