[Illustration: _MR. OSEBA._]
MR. OSEBA'S
LAST DISCOVERY.
By GEO. W. BELL
(Col. BELL, Seven Years U.S. Consul,
At Sydney, Australia).
_The conspicuous happiness and prosperity of a people, are the best
evidences of benign rule._
WELLINGTON, N.Z.:
THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES CO., LTD., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS.
1904.
_To the People of New Zealand, the most
advanced community among men, the
Author dedicates these erratic pages...._
_ERRATA._
Page 87, line 27, read "manor," not "manner." Page 150, line 18,
"£168,849,381," not "£120,981,599."--Later Year Book. An experienced
and painstaking friend has called my attention to several typographical
errors, and a few immaterial ones in grammar. These faults I deeply
regret, but considering my own imperfections, I am glad they are so few
and so immaterial.
"Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see.
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me."
A NOTE.
Many regard the usual "preface" to a book as of questionable value, but
custom may justify the continuance of its use.
I had long been a student of Anglo-Saxon history, but until I went to
Australia in 1893, I had seen little hope for a realisation of the
higher aspirations of the race.
Being an individualist, a democrat of democrats, I hold that the unit
of society is its basic factor, and, while in those far-off lands,
I saw a vague recognition of this truth, I also saw a mergence of
democracy into socialism, that failed to satisfy my definitions.
I came to New Zealand in early 1903, on a lecture tour. I was well
received; and, as I could never remain in a place over night without
inquiring "who started the town," and for what purpose, I began an
inquiry into the situation.
I had heard and read that this colony was "submerged with socialism,"
and "given over to the falsehood of extremes," so I studied the
literature, I mingled with the people, I attended the parliamentary
sittings, and--took notes.
I found in the Press, a broad independence; in the people, a sturdy
self-reliance; and in the statesmen, a feeling that they were the
chosen servants of the public, by whom a ripened sentiment was to be
clothed in the forms, and vitalised with the force, of law.
I found that what the uninformed derisively-called "Socialism"
consisted chiefly in a series of co-operative measures, that seemed
to promise, not "nerveless socialism," but the most sturdy democracy
civilization had ever produced.
In my reveries, I reviewed the old books; I re-trod the path of human
progress; I re-measured the struggles and the achievements of the
Anglo-Saxon race, and, comparing the environing conditions with the
social forces now at work, I wrote.
Being a "stranger," I had no interest, save in seeing my long-cherished
theories on the way to realisation; having no acquaintances, I had no
friends to flatter or enemies to criticise; and, having no favors to
ask, I found it easy, in a free off-hand way, to note my impressions
with impartiality.
I clothed my subject in a garb of fiction, that I might wrest from
the reader the memories of the daily struggle with stubborn facts; I
adopted a style, that I believed would be appreciated for its audacious
novelty, and, though the eloquent flights of my chief character may
seem picturesque, he but expresses the impressions, the feelings, and,
further, the opinions of--
THE AUTHOR.
INDEX.
PAGE
SCENE I 1-10
A Stormy Voyage.--Leo Bergin Appears.--He has Discovered the Great
Discoverer.--Sudden Separation.