THE SHAGROON'S LAST.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 778, 2 October 1852, Page 3

THE SHAGROON'S LAST.

A LAY OF THE RAKAIA. Stern and cold the mountains upheave against the sky, And at their base a river is wildly rushing by ; A thousand rafted chasms in the shingly mountain's side, Lead down their snow-born tribute to swell the rushing tide. The shadow of no tree or shrub is flung across the stream, But desolate and lonely it passes like a dream. The cry of startled wild-flowl, or the Weka's mournful wail, Are the only sounds that echo in the silence of the rale. The uncropt grass of ages lies matted on the soil, No track on the deserted waste tells yet of human toil ; The rat alone of animals hath made the place his home. And its coming is the shadow of the change that is to come. Yet forest trees once waved where now wild bareness reigns, And nature had her coverts on these naked hills and ' plains : Relenting time still leaves charred brands and mouldering bones, Tho' tradition recognizes not the monumental stones. The Moa ranged those forests, which are all now swept away, But myst'ry veils the giant bird that died with their decay. The shrill winds whistle mournfully, where once they waved the bloom, As if lamenting for old times and o'er the forest's doom. But another change has come, and the verdict has gone forth— The mountains and the valleys shall be peopled from the north ; The wilderness shall vanish and the savage shall give place To the hardy sons of enterprise — the Anglo-Saxon race. The plough shall turn the furrow, and the golden crop shall wave On the soil for ages lying in the silence of the grave ; Where old forests once decayed new woodlands shall appear, And industry her work thro' all the land shall rear. The lowing of the herd or the bleating of the flock, Shall be the cheerful echoes of the so long silent rock : Ships shall spread their sails for the long deserted I shore, The sun is rising fast, desolation's reign is o'er !