TE MAPARA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 472, 8 June 1912, Page 3

TE MAPARA.

Own Correspondent

Of the many and numerous old settlements in our colony which commend themselves to him who wanders from place to place, Akaroa and Russell, on tt.e beautiful Bay of Islands, claim first place in his heart. Though very beautiful these places, for their historic interest alone, would command notice, but it is in the inhabitants themselves that the chief claim lies. Lying isolated or apart, descended from the earliest pioneers, they have developed a homely colonial character all their own; not altogether colonial either, but incline towards the ideals and sentiments of the old land. A halo of pioneering legend surrounds each, and candidly, they p3y more scrupulous attention to the honour of their family name, and to their general bearing, than do the inhabitants of younger and more cosmopolitan settlements. If a poet is ever born to the people, one of these old historic bays will surely be his cradle. And yet they too have their drawbacks; a conservatism, an allegiance to obsolete practices, an ever increasing outcry for new blood to introduce ideas from the outside world. How different to these is our somewhat remote settlement of Mapara, hatched in the skull of Mac Nab, and unfortunately materialised some three years ago. Here we have an assortment of settlements carefully blown by the four winds of heaven. Farmers from the agricultural parts of Canada and Canterbury, dairymen from Denmark and Taranaki, settlers from Westland, with skins that defy the elements; sun-tanned wanderers from Australia and North Auckland; even the übiquitous Londoner is not missing. With many minds, so many new ideas mingled together; with so large a numbej of fresh, vigorous men and women settled on an unexhausted virgin scil; in spite of the negative blessing which a Government has conferred upon them, such a settlement is bound to hold its own. But in a vast area of only partly settled country like this, one settlement to a great deal depends upon the settlement and progress of contiguous and even outlying parts. A general advance in the King Country is therefore indispensible. In a part of the world where the average unit forgets that the interest of one is the interest cf all, such progress must needs be slow; for we have two well known parties here, fighting their battles over again. The semi-squatter, and the settler, who strange to say are natural enemies, like the octopus and jelly fish, though this jelly fish is slowly evolving into a shark destined to swallow the octopus. The semi-squatter poses as a man of brains, vainly believing that one generation has raised him from the emmigrant to the aristocracy of intellect. Such elfish tricks does vanity play with man, tricks which inspired Pope to wite his essay on the same individual, and which afterwards turned the pen of Carlysle into a veritable harquebuss. Yet, what a man imagines himself to be, that will he some day surely become, for so says either Shakespeare or Moses. At present he is just sufficiently well to do to spend most of his time planning to much purpose; for as yet he has less than nothing to beat—just enough opposition to sharpen his keen little nut ' The settler is a man who has obtained much experience by hard labour, and endless struggles under many skies; he produces a few men of sound judgment, who will sometime guide his footsteps into happier channels. At present he allows his domestic duties to absorb his whole being, and works to make others grow fat. Some day, when he learna to fraternise, organise, and apply the power which numbers give him. he will make the semi-squatter scratch himself. Just at present the settler is a man possessing hardihood, admirable endurance some rugged ability without the power to utilise it. But both are as yet in the. chrysalis stage, and a lack of all that is humanly interesting is appalling; is there none to relieve this awful monotony. Through every cloud there passes a ray of sunshine; in every host of black starlings appears a white one. What of the immigrant who conies to us from across ten thousand miles and mure of endless, monotonous rolling sea? He takes but little part in the political and local administration of a country where he is not native to the soil; but take him into your confidence; carefully analyse him, and as surely as the heavens rain, you will find a true man there. Despite, our euimigration law, depite the land to settle and the bush to annihilate, the emmigrants kinsmen at Home are forgetting our shores. Our own colony is uunable to reproduce him. Our advance in civilisation is remarkable; our advance in education is undeniable; yet this picturesque character is fast slipping away from us, soon to disappear in the pa3t but not to be forgotten, for the imagination which he has conquered is his for evermore; throughout endless generations he shall make his appearance and reappearance; in a phantasmagoria of him and those misty figures with which our imaginations will even now obstinately associate him. As it was with the passing of the Roman, his equal will never be seen. When the last trumpet has been called, and the deeds of men have been weighd in the balance, the Indian's happy hunting ground may be spared by him; neither angel nor devil is he, nor ever can be.