NGAHEREANA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 24, 5 April 1907, Page 3

NGAHEREANA.

[By W. T. Morpeth.]

The countiy lies at our feet. From the hill upon which we stand, to the encircling limits of the horizon, stretches range upon range of hills, rolling, tumbled, rising here in serried spurs to the top of a watershed quivering in the summer solstice, there falling sheer a thousand feet to a cold, clear mountain torrent rushing nosily, down its rocky bed, flowing under piles of rotting logs, over the embedded trunks of fallen trees, past steep banks were the glow-worms glisten solemnly half hidden b} r the drooping tupari, and the red-green emiemi shyly woos the shade. Against the sky in the west Tawhitiraupeka rears his broadening height, crowned with lofty ratas, proud and cruel as Nature loves to be. Down towards the Wanganui the spurs crowd thickly, rising aud falling till lost in the deepening haze. In the north spreads a chain of broken birchclad hills, and far in the east, flanking

the barren phi ins of Taupo, and dividing the e:irth from the sk} r , is the f.iint broken, deep-blue line of a distant forest range. Over all this tract of country it would seem the forest reigns supreme. The. truth is that it does not, for here ■■nd there on its borders, and penetrating within, trickle tiny streams of settlement ; but viewed from the 10-"ly summit of Kauiarei one sees iu sign' of the advancing tide, nor hears the quick sharp ripple of the bushmen's axe% The sombre, prussian-green. chiaroscuro landscape appears to-day as solemn, as silent,|as motionless as i appeared a thousand years ago. It i not easy to grasp the secret of the bush. Its scarcely-varying monotony excites no pleasure, arouses no desire, kindles no emotion. Here are nc artistic effects, no changing landscapes, green fields, lowing herds ; no contrasts of colours, no cascades, or islands, or glittering seas. "Jo one who dwells habitually in it, the bush, in its monotonous, unvarying aspect, suggests only the inevitable, and a stern, unbroken continuity. Sullen, unchanging, persistent, even the iron laws of evolution it would seem to defy. Considered individually, however, there is yet another thought the bush suggests. If it is true that the fundamental principle of plant life, as well as human life, is contained in a little globule of protoplasm, it seems reasonable that a common origin should have been inferred. And, admitting a common origin, and one may hardly deny it, why has man so short a span of life, while many, trees live a thousand years ? It is significant that the birds of the air fly from man, cruel, predatory, carnivorous, and with many of the characteristics of his more recent simian ancstors still painfully in evidence, and take refuge in the kindly shelter of forest trees, which, unlike man, derive all their sustenance from the earth, and the chemical components of the atmosphere combined with the sun's light and heat. In the animal world, as for instance in the case of the elephant, we have instances of prolonged life along with a diet' of vegetables and fruit. Some of our leading scientists predict a radical change in our form of diet, which in the future will consist of food chemically prepared. Can it be that, side by side with our wretchedly-adjusted economic system, and the evils associated with it, we have violated^some-funda-mental, ultimate law in destroyiug life to maintain life, and that in the ravages of cancerous and tumorous diseases, and a life curtailed we pay the penalty for our transgression ? Can it be that here is a clue to the secret of the elixir of life, which the alchemists of old time sought for so diligently in vain ? Can it be that the startling belief, finding scattered expression through the world to-day, that after all death is an accident, and not a natural dispensation, will ever become a certainty ? That, when man has achieved Spencer's " approximately complete adjustment," he will proceed to achieve a complete adjustment, and re-present the phenomenon of eternal life presented by. certain unicellular organisms ? Can it be that the philosophies, religions, politics, S3 r stems of to-day, will fuse into an all-embracing pantheism, in whose spacious temples a serene and happy posterity will read an ancient riddle, will unravel the tangled skein of life? Ma wai e ki mai! Ma wai ra ! In the meantime let us not unduly vex ourselves about these fascinating" problems, nor take life too seriously. Life is quite real enough, and we need no poet to tell us so. One who has lived long in the bush becomes in time familiar with its bird life, which, with the exception of the rat and some lizards, is the only form of vertebrate life native to it. In the mornings he wakes to the tui's ringing angelus, a gushing torrent of praise, a riotous, emulate, welter of song, a virile, stirring reveille, a cascade of throbbing, medodious inharmonies. Through the day, and in the proper seasons, he will hear the strong, piercing, vibrant screech of the koekoea ; the measured, musical, sharply-articu-late staccato of the makomako, or bellbird, still fairly plentiful; the longdrawn, joyous salute of the pipiwharauroa, who bravely dares three, thousand miles to tell him that summer is come ; the harsh, guttural cry of the kaka ; the pigeon's faintly-surprised, foolish, lady-like coo; the tremulous, liquid sigh of the kakako, low and soft as a maid's good-night to her lover. Occasionally he will hear the thin, cruel squeal of the sparrow-hawk, and will see the karikari, beautiful as to plumage, but with a note like —like nothing at all. Still more rarely now does the pitoitoi hop around at lunch time, or the piopio hail him as he passes by. A life passed inconstant association and close communion with Nature should be conductive to a fine loftiness of mind, an intelleetual transparency and simplicity which shrinks from all that is false, base or obscene; and which, aided by an illative sense quickened by solitude, detects, with rare intuition, the character of excellence, and the essences of moral strength and beauty. Intercourse with Nature should purge and cleanse the mind of many blots, stains, and impurities, and minister to and develop the artistic sense ; and the intellectual action thus involved, combined with habits of thought and study, will rescue the mind from the dangers of solitude, which, otherwise, is liable to induce melancholy, narrowness, and unhealthy introspection, and to accentuate, rather than eliminate, mental peculiarities and predisposed tendencies. Unfortunately, the imperfections of our natures too often assert themselves ; we neglect to cultivate that mysterious grey matter which we arc told is the seat of the intelligence, and envy, suspicion, selfishness, a whole crop of all kinds of ugly weeds and thistles spring up, and leave no room for the cultivation of the bright flowers of the mind, which shed such a radiance on our lives, nor for the enjoyment of those rich fruits of intellectual effort which great men, in all the ages, with reverence and humility, have laid upon the altars of the gods.