‘VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE.’

Hokitika Guardian, 30 October 1923, Page 4

‘VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE.’

■•To hoys and maidens,” 1 write in the hope that they may not grow up blind and deaf to the beauty ol 'he world around them, hill that they may know and understand v.liat is meant by ••THE I.FIiF OF THE WILD.” "Tile purple We lland Mountains The snow-clad, sun-kiss’d peaks. The gloom v hush, the giant ferns. The brown and turbid creeks; Tim skie:, of dappled wind cloud Or heavy nimbus pall The little fantails flirting Hie rata red and tall: These are tlm sights that hold us These are tie: lni-Mamlx lure!” We. who live ill beautiful Westland ...a veritable lairyhmd <T natural 1,,-amy and grandeur perhaps find it didieuli i i realize iiiat there are others town-h',veiling, and city folk-—to whom such things are quite uukn :v, n. "i’aniiliaril.y breeds contempt, mi sigli.s wi consider common and nil intcre-iing would I-,- Io thorn :s glimn- -ol a Ikiradi- on Earth. And vet is ! in-re. •an t’.■•re ' ••. anyone in ■ onto time fell the ‘‘call ol the wild: - I'm in Ihe little slum-bred child, v.Lo pil ks up a laded flower in the gutter, and weaves around it sunny dreams •! that wonderful romitry and s-'a-side life which to her is almost a myth, down io the hardened haek-Wo-oiLinai! of a Canadian forest -w ho all lii> liie la - fill and answered the magnetic lure. It is a most diMieilit thing to di line by mere cold words, this mi-

l lira I and linh.ddeu de-ire o! tlm spirit for fined,mi from contact with, or sight ni'. in.in-made things. And so, as II i? a thing we eannot explain, a feeling we ran -•- and elfoels. ii we go hack io t!:e beginning, and e-.'.iisider the Universe. ‘ hoimdles-. endless and sublime,” who-e 111 is 11 ii>■ wonder and exieiit no liiiiuaii mind can stand why I lie Ancients thought the.' could hear I lie “Mu-in of 'he Spheres” -a- i!u y liiov, .1 OU tin ir .ea -el -s journey ings tiirollgli -p.n o. fi w deslhe myriad .-ini-, ve find ii, • three Kin.uloms -the Air. tin- Land, and i!

Sea. each in it • *.w n way exem.tg a fasi-in.ii inn over mankind. We kmiw how the wind I ihe I • siioni the sea. cud and refreshing —wo welcome the wind? from the hind, bringing to us the sc,nit <,l miles of golden guise ; ami we Rory in e. Menu. AYe lemher how Burns loud ‘‘to walk in (he sheltered *•-»«!.. of a wood, or a high plaiitaticii on a (loud;, winter (lay. and hca’ tl : e m nrniy wind

over tile plain and iie is no! Hie oid.v elcntctii s in their anger. ( hnticrL.n. hymn, Slndley, ('ttuiitugltutn and la: Kipling have all showed flu-ir admitat ion, each in in ? own maimer. Then there is the ein indy mod: ill aspect, ending in what i- perhaps unwisely called man's conquest of (ho air. What hut the adamant e;:,l ,-i tin-, air, sent such men as Cody, Captain Rail and Lieutenant Hawker to their glorious death-!- Neither success where others faded, nor money and re-

nown, sent ih-un time after time t, lace the little-known forces of the elements. They knew they could mu resist (ho call, and so they wont! Of the Ocean f almost fear to speak, having felt the lure of its placid l/luc in Hie sunny f'ncilie, and the fascinating terror of ii- grey and stormy billows iii Hie South, by ( ape Hove and the Korglueti Islands, ft i- the wanderer's highroad, leading him ! distant lands, over changing, ever calling: yet unforgiving and inscrutable in its passion, slaving its greatest lovers. And yet. with Alasciicld. T must go down to the Sea again. To the lonely sc : i and the «kv. And all I ask is a tall ship' And, a star to sfeer her by.” Byron has surpassed ;.i| others in the magnificence of his famous address to the Ocean, in "Child;; Harold”: and the lives of such men ns Drake, Nelson. ( apt all i Cook and .shno kleton, are clear examples of the lure of the Ocean to those "who go down to the

sea in ships." On land we have the three Realms the Animal, the Vegetable and tin Mineral Kingdoms, each claiming t portion oi mankind as its leva] sub ieet-. Wo know that it was the wan dei lit -1 and the spirit ni advoninre more than the mere desire fop -.]■]. v hieh entered the heart:, of the pioneers. ana sent them over the mountains and through the forests of unknown lands, facing cold death in Hooded rivers, torturing thirst in treeless, limitless deserts, am! slow starvation in trackless wastes of snow It was not that they went blindlv info danger. They know and counted the cost: hut could not. if they would, deny the voice which hired them on. They were horn to wander, and their lives were not theirs to guide. We have all in a small way felt the desire to know something of the birds and animals around us. and so can understand why Selous preferred the dangers of the African jungle to the

peaceful life of c. civilised town.- We can realise that Vfr.terton was never happier than v.'hen roaming through the vampire-infested forests oi the Amazon, braving a thousand dangers, in answer to what sonic people might call a mad craze. Those of us who have been down the great South Hoad can sense the joy with which Captain Cook heard the wonderful chorus of bell birds at Dusky Sound, thinking it worthy of mention in a crowded record or a strange new land, l! wn- the same spirit which inspired Keats to writ"- his exquisite "Ode to a Ngihtingaie." and which set firowning, exiled in Italy, longing to hoar again the thru.sh‘s spring song; in England. Tiie love of flowers is almost universally amongst us. From our earliest days wo love their pretty colours their sweet perfume, and as wo grow older we become so accustom-'-! to their presence that a place without a garden seems to us barren of all interest. The violet, the primrose, the daffodil and the numbers of other garden flowers all have their lovers, and we in Westland have a host < i wild flowers from which to gain inspiration for higher and In tier things. 1 ; there anyone who does not feel enriched by tin- sight of manuka blossom.', trailing stars of clematis or clumps of htt-’i liwycrr Do not ills- scented blooms i.l climbing jasmine and the blood-red rata !!i - war - teach u< t’urity and Courage? Wiih such a wealth of beauty and peti-e around u-g Wordsworth’.- words altaiii llieir fell meaning:--•-'i'o me the in siiu-sl llower that blows can give Thoughts i! at do often lie too deep for tears.” Ami now having but glanced at the fairyland which lies all around us. and which is forever calling to us. bidding Us. be wise and follow the lure —we have yet to render thanks to the Creator before d' parting on our way. For he would he blind, indeed, who having wandered even thus far, did no! discern the orderly rule of an Unseen 1 land. Wherever one follows the lure - down a hawthorn-scented lam-, or through a wood carp--ted with bluebells, in Eu-'lan-l : or through dense tangles of tropical jungle, or out oil lb.- Southern Alps, amidst the glory of mountain lilies and veronicas, or far into the Westland forests, in New Zealand, h;. night or by day, oil land or s<-a, there is the abiding presence of I• i: -. v. horn in. ii call Cod Ami so—- " For all the lieautics e.f our iutsh. For iil'-iK!- -iri-.i. the ‘o!rmn hash, For s'lie. of hell-l-ird, t-d, thrush. For moss we (read, hut do not eru-di We j.ii-i e the!-. (I our Coil.” HAVAKH f'AItHAM