MR DOMETT’S NEW POEM.

Evening Star, Issue 3042, 18 November 1872, Page 4

MR DOMETT’S NEW POEM.

(From the Southern Cross.) New Zealand has in it much to excite the inspiration of the poor, and several readable volumes of verse from the pens of Colonists have appeared from time to time. We learn that a poem has just passed through the London press, entitled “llanolf and Amohia: A South Sea Day Dream,” by Alfred Domett. The story is laid in LakeTaupo country, and will, we believe, be chietly legendary in its treatment. It will contain twenty-five cantos, but in what measure, or whether in blank verse or rhyme, we do not learn. Of all the great southern Colonies, our own is perhaps the only one which has a poetic world in its past history. From the landing of Captain Cook to the time of the war with the chief Heke, and from Heke until the time of the Waikato war, there has been much o? romance as a theme 1 for the poet’s song. Bloody romance it is true ; but rich and'replete with deeds of great daring and barbarian prowess. There' are, top, the grand beauties of a rugged country and the transcendent scenery of snow-clad mountains lakes, torrents, and rivers to fill the fore and background between the central figures of savage life to be pourtrayed. The early history of Australia can only tell of its convict stations of '■ ew South Wales : its vagabond Governors, its bushrangers, and its rum-drinking population, Victoria at its first settlement was abandoned as not being suitable for human existence. Its after history is one of sheep runs, farms, and vineyards. Tasmania is fellow to it in past, although now undoubtedly the garden of the southern hemisphere. Whether in Australia or Tasmania, the aboriginals alike shrank back and retreated before the advance of civilisation to decrease in numbers, until in the one Colony they became extinct, while in the other a few thousands of wretcheh creatures remain, who for the greater part live upon the bounty of the white settler, They too will become extinct before the child of the present generation becomes father of the next. But it has not been so in New Zealand. Here the white man had to fight against the brave and crafty, tlxe cruel at least, if not the treacherous Maori. These have aptly been compared to the auciept Briton when he held out against the Norman and the Dane in their invasion upon tho iron-hound, surf-beaten coast of what is now glorious old England. Even with all the aid of our science and experience in war, and with all tho deadly weapons of a later civilisation, we have never dared to treat the Maori as a foe lightly to be considered. Ag man to man, arm to arm, and breast to breast, with the same weapon, he is our equal. In strategy he has on occasions been more than our equal; in council he has been wise as the serpent, but not harmless as the dove. He has made us respect him, and he has not seldom made us to fear him. It has been in the strength of our superior knowledge only that we have been able to conquer him ; and e- eu yet he is not subdued. There is ample scope arid verge enough for'a poet’s story-. The materials arc abundant, and they are of that kind which has helped to form the subject of mere than one grand epic, Wc hope, as we believe, that Mr ATrcd Domett, in his “Kauolf and Amohia,” will fulfil the expectations of those who know how competent he is for such a work.

A good many consumptive people go to live in Minnesota, and we read that “ Minnesota has more men running upon one lung than any other state.” The Ti me* suggests that during & thunderstorm every person should carry his or her own lightning conductor, (in the shape of a light pde 15 feet in length, fitted with copper wire, which should terminate in a point at the top and a good stout pifce at the bottom. These poles, wc may suggest, might also be fastened to the beads or tails of horses, donkeys. cattle, sheep, dogs, and other valuable animals, to say nothing of gats, parrots, and pet monkeys. According to a Wolverhampton correspondent of the Glasgow Herald, the first impulse of a Stafford hire ironworker, now that he is getting such high wages, appears to be “to drink the same liquor as his master, and to eat the same food. He wants salmon and turkey pullets, duck and green peas. He walks into a little pot house in the Black Country with the air which a Staffordshire man can assume when iron is up, and asks for a bottle of red port.”