RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 549, 12 March 1913, Page 3

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker,

To him who waits all things are said to inevitably come. Possibly the person who is responsible for the sentiment uttered above was a devout believer in the law of compensation as ascribed to things both material and spiritual. Possibly he was a fatalist with a sense of humour, and the unfor tunate experience of seeing desirable things coming to everyone but himself. It is profitless, however, to 1 speculate upon the origin of platitudes, and the average individual is buoyantly careles of the origin of anything as long as he has the privilege to use what comes his way without paying too dearly for it. This remark was begun, not with the intention of dealing with any individual, but with a collection of units which represents the youth, intellect, and enterprise of Te Kuiti. Youth supplies the necesBary dash and irresponsibility of consequences; intellect and enterprise does the rest. Then things begin to come.

Things began to come King Countrywards long ago, and the volume has increased as the aforementioned attributes have kept multiplying. Enterprise of a high order has always distinguished the King Country, and judging from recent and impending happenings there is no perceptible diminution of the quality. A queer thing about enterprise is that in looking back at a thing which has been attempted and accomplished, is that after we have become accustomed to it we regard it as the merely natural outcome of events. In this manner we have got accustomed to our Acclimatisation Society, and few people realise that but for the energy and devotion of certain idividuals the society would still be only talked of as a possibility of the happy future all things will have come our way. It is a great thing to be proud of our institutions, and after hearing what was said of the local society by the visiting acclimatisationists our local members should be wearing their hats with a very jaunty tilt.

Pride in our institutions naturally concedes a certain amount of the same quality in individuals. After all, there is not much adulation showered upon the uninteresting person who merely waits for things to come his way, and is endowed with a more than average prehensile faculty. It is the person who, with hot blooded energy, goes out to seek things, and careless alike of difficulty or failure, attempts a deed for the sake of doing who claims universal admiration. Of such calibre are the individuals who last week attempted., and partially succeeded in, the exploration of the Mangapu caves. Had they been content to sit down and wait for the caves or even the Mangapu, to come to them, their deeds would never have been recorded in cold print, nor would their names have been emblazoned upon the tablet which some day will decorate the entrance to the famous Mangapu, which doubtless was once the hom* of the fearsome taniwha. The difficulties overcome by the brave explorers have not yet become the theme of song or story, but some idea of the sufferings of the party may be obtained from the fact that not even a flask had been provided for the occasion.

The constantly recurring dis coveriea of new wonders in the King Country will render the district a strong rival to the thermal regions unless the exploring habits of the residents are curbed. What is described as the most wonderful waterfall in New Zealand has recently become known to man at Ohura, and the several expeditions which have been made to the falls have fully borne out the original description. The falls are at present somewhat out of the beaten track, but judging by the progress being made in the district the Waitaanga Niagara will shortly be harnessed for the purpose oE supplying power and light to the metropolis of the garden valley. It is stated on good authority that the roar of the Waitaanga falls is auch that visitors are compelled to wear cotton wool in their ears to prevent concussion of the brain. This is a drawback, but tourists will get used to it in time. They will find little difficulty, moreover, in falling in with otjer prevailing customs of the locality.