THE NATIONAL FLOWER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1156, 9 October 1913, Page 3

THE NATIONAL FLOWER.

KOWHAI OR PUA WANANGA.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —In response to your request I have pleasure in quoting the text of my letter to the Rt. Hon. the Premier written on Christmas Day 1910—I may add that to the people of Feildlng belongs the honour and credit of introducing and persisting in the realisation of this desirable object. Being the most conspicuous flower in that locality it is only natural that they should favour the Kowhai. Indeed, it matters little what flower is ultimately chosen, provided it fulfills the conditions necessary to universal adoption and acceptance, thus fostering the spirit of patriotism and encouraging the culture of our native flora through the sentiment of beauty and romance.

“ The Rt. Hon. the Prime Minister, Sir: From time to time it has been suggested that we should recognise oue of our country’s many beautiful floral products as the national flower o( New Zealand. May I ask that you will commend this object to your colleagues, and further, that you will give your influence in favour of the large native Clematis, which is common in all parts of the Dominion and ‘beautiful beyond compare.’ The native name ‘Pua Wananga’ has, moreover, a charmingly poetic little legendary story in connection with its origin, and this too will ensure a more widely recognised acceptance of it by our own people and those of other lands. This is the legend as told to me by Hare Hongi, a direct descendant of the old time Auckland warrior Hongi: ‘When the Maoris were driven from the land of Hawaiki by dissensions concerning women and land, their greatest sorrow was not the fact of being exiled from the laud they loved, not their poverty and starvation, but that they had lost their ‘Wananga,’ an object representing tbeir cosmogony, their genealogy, their moral and spiritual code, regarded by the Maori people much in the same light as the earlier Christian esteemed his Bible. As they passed across the ocean stricken with hunger, the daily and hourly regret was, not the want of food and shelter, but the loss of the beloved “Wananga.” Arriving off the shores of New Zealand in the early spring, the festoons of the Clematis in its undisturbed luxuriance and beauty evoked the spontaneous cry, ‘Pua Wananga’ (it is the flower of our Wananga) —hence the name of the flower,”

Its claims to recognition as the national flower are thus shown to be pre-eminent. It was the first object of notice and the first name bestowed in the dawn of history of New Zealand. The story of its name is a record of the dramatic and poetic instinct of the Maori.

It is the most striking and beautiful of all our native flora. Unlike the Kowhai or other claimants, its growth is common to all parts of New Zealand. Like the Rose of England and the Lily of France, it has its legendary story of heroism and romance, which would appear to be necessary to universal interest and acceptance. Yours faithfully, Jas. H. Stevens. Palmerston North, 8/10/13,