THE PASSING OF THE FAIRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 77

THE PASSING OF THE FAIRY.

I By -a. Banker.

In this utilitarian age beauty and elegance of form and design are, in many directions, sacrificed to efficiency. And although this is by no means a universal rule — e.g., architecture, which in the early Victorian days appeared to have been «• lost art, but is now approaching towards the sublime and *rtistie mastership of the ancient Greeks and Romans — yet in other directions the tendency to ignore the adornment of assthetio *nd refined symmetry is becoming mor« and mor« appareu t. And perhaps this tendenoy ia nowhers more manifest than in naval design. Hot» full of grace and beauty, for instance, were • those fairies of the sea, the full-rigged clippers of thirty or forty yoars ago. And when, in a moderate breeze, with every sail set, from miiinskysail and roizzentopgallantstaysail to flying- jibtopEfcil, the gallant Bhip ploughs her way through the . sparkling waters, a rainbow hovering about her _ bowa as the dancing spray is thrown high in air from her cutwater, and her snow-white saila glistening in the brilliance of the sun's rays, she is indeed a thing of beauty *nd a veryi joy. But, alas! she is passing away, and the giant steamer, belching forth huge volumes of black curling smoke like a> volcano, and defiling the atmosphere" for many leagues in her wake, has usurped her place. And, too, to compare the line of battleships, and the frigates, and the corvettes of days gone by, such *a Nelson led to victory at Trafalgar, or as those with which Duncan gained the glorious victory of Caroperdown, with the modern sleuth-hounds of the seas— the cruisers and the battleships and the torpedo boats of the present day. The former with their tier upon tier of projecting cannon, and their graceful lines, and. their ornamental bows adorned with gilded and painted figureheads of Achilles, or of Marlborough, or of the Iron Duke; a flee* of these fighting beauties would send a thrill of pride and of pleasure coursing through the veins. But a Dreadnought or a Colossujb, though, of course, immensely more powerful' and more effective as a fighting machine than its predecessors, yet cannot claim any pretence "to beauty, and can only be described as unlovely, unshapely, and grim. But a day will come when all these floating fortresses will no longer be required; when the lion will lie down with the lamb, and when peace and contentment will reign' supreme throughout the ea-rth. For He who left His throne in the Heaven of he«.ven» in order to reconcile man to his Maker bfl pnying the debt due to Eternal Justice am • his Substitute, thereby justifying all who will accept Him as their Saviour, will onos more come down in majesty to reign over a renovated and sinless earth.