WHITE ISLAND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 52, 27 February 1945, Page 3

WHITE ISLAND

We greet the dawn and there revealed to us His majesty appears witli plume on Wigh wafting gently jn the.passing breeze Is clearly seen. The steaming mount is nigh. The spirit of adventure running high We boldly start out tramp around the isle 9 And passing through the gaping crater wall '9 j We see such sights as make us pause awhile. And then! AVhat Hell is this! What stench is this That strikes my quivering nostril to the raw? As though the Devil himself had made his wind And pergatory were at our very door. Aye! Pergatory it. is t and seemingly We pay these torments for our earthly sins But having paid we enter to the show And see and hear the wondrous things within. Great chasms throw high the thundering steam, An hundred thousand lions could not so. roar. The earth beneath is> trembling as in fear, As well it may t and we are filled with awe. We wander slowly round among these giants And feel ourselves we lords of our ■9 domain 9 Pettv folk indeed and one and all »> subdued By forces pent within this strange terrain. And beauteous sights there are in gleaming gold, The glistening sulphur mound the I'umerolc, The steaming lake ( portrayed in vivid greei^ And scoria red ard white and ? 9 black as coal. So having .seen these things we feel repaid A thousand times for any trials endured "We've seen within the land of steam and lire And in our memories hold it all secure. R.S. 1940. »t