THE ONLY POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS 255 

 What is really required in the interests of the country 

 is that the great political parties should unite for the 

 amicable settlement of the agricultural and fiscal pro- 

 blems. The Poor Law system in the same way should be 

 thrown into the melting-pot, and so reorganised to 

 meet modem requirements, that it would not be neces- 

 sary to go on wasting untold milHons, as in the past, on 

 State, public, and private charity. 



By proceeding on these and other hnes, sketched in 

 preceding chapters, it should be comparatively easy to 

 establish Old Age Pensions, to which the State, em- 

 ployers, and the employed could contribute their quotas. 

 An atmosphere of peace, prosperity and happiness would 

 thus be evolved from the foul miasma arising from 

 the poverty, pauperism and despair, which are now the 

 curse of the country, and of which those Socialists, 

 who are really Anarchists, are endeavouring to make 

 so much political capital for the furtherance of their 

 own ends. 



With this brief presentment of the important ques- 

 tions dealt with extensively in earlier pages, it only 

 remains for us to ask ourselves: — "Shall we be found 

 wanting as a Nation, when our time comes to be weighed 

 in the balance? Have we used well the talents entrusted 

 to us, or have we hidden them away in a napkin, like the 

 man in the old parable?" 



We form a part only of a great Empire. Have we set an 

 example that our Colonies and the world at large may 

 foUow with advantage and benefit? Or have we been so 

 neglecting our great destiny as a Nation, and our splendid 

 opportunities as a people, that we incur the danger of 



