LAND OF MYSTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1932, Page 2

LAND OF MYSTERY

MAGIC HEART OF AFRICA

LOST CIVILISATION

WELLINGTON, May 3,

,An interesting talk on Africa was given to members of the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday by Mr George l)ay, it. former builder of Wellington, who recently returned from a visit to that country,’ where be has missionary friends.

Rhodesia was a topsy-turvy land of sunshine. Sunshine was all very well,

but when one had nothing else-for eight months—right through winter, too--and as a result the veldt became grassless and the trees, leafless, it was not so good, said Mr Day. ' Tnfe rains came in the summer, and then it was as though a fairy and waved her magic ivand over the land. Following the first shimmer of green, the whole country burst, into a pageantry of the most glorious colours, and for two or three weeks the place .was a kaleidoscope of colour. Then with, increasing maturity the growth became normal green, as Nature had her Way. But ill gp’te of all this beauty—and unquestionably Rhcdesitl had its charms—it was ft land that all residents cursed ffoitl oiie find of the yeaf to The other, as it was subject ilot only to droughts; but to plagues of bisect life, to say nothing of the worry qf the bunk overdruft.

BULAWAYO WELCOME. “At Bulawayo I received a welcome ,'rom 800 natives in a hall,” said Mr Day. “As it. was a warm evening, and natives are but natives, I got them to jpen the windows. As soon as this ..'as done in came thousands of insects —beetles, bugs, tarantules, all foragers and adventurers, some four inches across the wings—and in no time they were attacking us with great industry. The rains.had come, and the ground was yielding up its-teeming life. The natives who attended were not the least disturbed. They took it as a good omen. ‘Had not God sent all the insects to welcome us?”

Mr Day visited.the famous .'Victoria Falls, and went up the Zambesi River to Livingstone. ' “There I was greatly struck to find that Armistice'Day was held in reverence,” said Mr Day. “.The fact that away there in Central Africa men, should be found standing bareheaded for two minutes in honour of those who fought and died in the Great War reminded me .that wherever the ': sun shone on the Union .Tack that simple act of homage was being observed.” '

there were no survivors. Thrusting iiitd the heart of Rhodesia Mr :Day visited ;the grave of Africa’s “\trtcrowned kiftgj‘ ,r *Cß6fl ’ Rhodes'," one Of the gfeftt Empire builders, and not so very far away w’Rs another lonely grave, that of , Alan Wilson ijnd. his men, who perished in their mad Attempt, to capture Lobengula, On the stone-is graven the telling epitaph: “There wore no survivors” Penetrating still further into the heart of Africa, Mr Day met heathen races, to whom the sight of a white man was a novelty. These people had probably lived im the "one .territory generation after generation, for thousands of years. “jlYitliout actually seeing one of these heathen . fo|k,” sa d Mr Day, “one c°uld .feel them. I have been in Port Said aiid traded with; the master Of all (scents, but‘ he had nothing on those heathens.”"'..'

SVAST ANCIENT CITY. . ■ . “In this! mysterious-country, which teems with;- game; there are many miracles,” .said ~Mr Djay. “In one part no fewer than 14 - square miles of stone ruins have been found, the. remaihs ‘of a great city, older than the Phoenicians, with a. great temple and a huge* fortress, all that remains of .a lost' civilisation in that great land of' mystery which .tells you. nothing of its past.” - ,