Westland Mountains Are Beyond Compare.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1922, Page 1

Westland Mountains Are Beyond Compare.

(Prelude). Here we have sunny hours, Luscious fruit and brilliant flowers, Scented breeze, and focund showers: A sparkling sea, Life full and free, Lagoons of blue, And coral too— But it is true Held deep within my heart Tins'thought will not depart— This sunny, bright Fiji, (Where moonbeams glance And waters dance), However fair, can never be What Westland mountains were to mel All, no! tho’ Fiji is so passing fair It never may W itdi Westland’s mountains grand compare. In their array Ol pink and blue and snowy white, Their purple shades, and opal light— These were my heart’s delight— Their peaks all crown’d with glorious goldStill these in fancy I behold— For though Vanue Levu* is passing fair Tbv mountains, AVcstland. ARE BEYOND COMPARE. There’s glory in these wondrous sunlit skies, A dreamy calm when myriad stars uprise— Soothing the senses, lifting up the soul, Speaking of Heav’n, the heart’s true goal, Wliisper’ng of the GOD, who made the whole. Ob! it is fair, yea passing fair. But AVestland mountains are beyond compare. And full of radiance are these sunny seas, — The Tasman waves are greyer far than these— Here golden sunshine gilds from day to day The placid waters of our Rainbow Bay While “laughing crabs”! among the shallows play. This scene is fair, oh passing fair, But Westland mountains are beyond compare.

*Levu is pronounced locally “Lev.” fSometimes spoken of as the calling cra b”—the “Gelasimus Vbvans” of Kingsley. Here coco palms sway in the dulcet breeze, With trunks that vie in height with Rimu trees, And hear, amid fair fronds, their fecund burden— No cabbage tree e’er gave so rich a guerdon— And trees of strangest species, grow and burgeon. Nature indeed is very lavish here. i But AVestland mountains are beyond compare. ' L’ENVOY. Other places, full of graces Indeed are fair, But AVestland mountains are beyond compare. HATNE WHYTE. Na San, Fiji, Jan. 1922.