PAERATA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 540, 15 June 1920, Page 2

PAERATA.

(By A.J.R.) Come list ye good people, while to you I sing A song of Paerata— Paerata in spring, Neath Heaven's blue never was fairer sight seen, Than bonnie Paerata embosomed in green. \\ hen the billowing slopes are in rich verdure clad, And the birds lilt their love-songs, in notes gay and glad, From the fresh-mantling foliage that decks shrub and tree, By the banks of the rivulet dancing in glee, Through sunshine and shadow, by boulder and brake, . O'er rocky ledge plunging, With thunder and shake. < Now sleeping in silence, as spent ot its force, ; Till gathering momentum, it speeds , on its course, , With ripple and gurgle and dimple and purl, In clear crystal shallows, and deeps all awhirl, , Till wending and herding adown the . deep glen, ' It? sinuous tracing? are lost to the 1 ken- . From far and from near the young

hither resort, In the clear, limpid waters in glee to disport, They clip, duck, and dive, like troutlets at play, With merry shouts ringing in choruses gay. Now casting the bait tor the sedgenidden eel, To tempt from its haunts in pursuit of a meal; Or gathering lush cresses, or Hlies that float Midst their soft waxen leaves, like u fairyland boat. How quaint the red, rude station sheds they appear, Gainst the background of bush rising i4iigh in the rear, The huge-holed Puriri, our Maoriland oak, Whose gnarled, twisted branches its "lossy leaves cloak; The'fan-fronded Nikau, the statelycurved* plumes Of Pungas, the Rata all gorgeous in blooms; Ihe sombre Taraire, tall Tawas that spread The sw&rd underfoot with plums pufffl&and. red, ~- nm ,flgjfg|2 The elegant Kiniu, or Dense draped in its foliage of rich filigree: But alas for the bush of whose glories we sing ! .%* Soon the axe in destructiSg' with echo shall ring! And the tall towering monarch and low-clinging fern, Must vanish forever in Nature's vast urn; •-.- For utility cries, and our beauties must fade, And the brord, metalled highway displace the green shade, And the ring of iron hoof, and the motor's dull roar Prevail where sweet beauty disported of yore. Mark how the hand of the spoiler has played With out waterfall's beauty—what havoc there made; The greenery that revelled in riotous pride, Adown the deep gorge where the flood pours its tide Sheer into the boulder-pent cauldron below, With waters foam-churned to the whiteness of .-now, Now reft of its beauty, and naked ■ and bare, The plundered sleep quakes, while rocks hurtle the air, And mangled, distorted, a hideous vent Shows earth's solid entrails all riven and rent, And broader and broader the quarry's mouth gapes As deformity huge Nature's contour mis-shapes. But of beauties remaining there's ample in store, So we'll weej) for these vanishing glories no more, But fro.n high coign of vantage the near uplands yield, View matchless, far-stretching, by Hood and field, Of rich fertile valley, and far wooded space, And distant blue hills, that the skies interlace, As fair panorama as e'er graced the sight, Since mortal man breathing first waked to the light. On the crown of yon slope that commands the fair vale, By shelter-belts skirt, and the grey winding trail, I

Where now the kine pasture, and patient flocks graze, Anil wanton lambs gambol through fast-lengthening clays, There proud l\alls of learning shall

stately walls rear, Ere the next leaves of Autumn fall shrivelled and sere, And the name and the fame of Paerata now rings, From far Stewart's isle to the frown-1 ing Three Kings. i Anear to the South Pukekohe's green

crest Like emerald glows on the landscape's broad oieast, With homesteads thick-nestling 'midst wattles and pine, And dark trailing hedgerows that boundaries define; And the bright green of meadow and culture's dark shade Are lik-: sunshine and shadow by floating cloud made. Those smiling slopes fertile by Nature caressed, They well might be termed "the abode of the blessed.'' There Spring-time eternal her precincts has laid, And defies harsh Wolf Winter's attempts to invade, And Ceres, fair godess, in triple-fold pours From her overflowing horn all her choicest of stores,

Anon to the East the gaze wanders away, To yon long range of hills, where historic Bombay Like fertile oasis midst drear desert space, To the grim face of Nature gives beauty and grace, From base to the skyline man's les-

son is writ: See ye the wilderness'' Conquer ye it! To the strength of your arm and the

sweat of your brow, She will yield you her treasures as we yield them now. To the North and the West how the raptured glance roves! O'er rolHng plains ranging, homes, hamlets, and groves. And tossed undulations, wave follow-

ing wave, Till Manukau's waters their margins cool lave; And grim Kangitoto's bold outlines arise. In triple-crowned crest 'gainst the distant grey skies, And slumb'ring Mount Eden, vVaitakere's blue— Sea, sky, mount and foreland tair blent to the viftw. Farewell now, Pacrata! my muses fond theme! Thy gay, sunny groves, and thy cleat ' winding stream! Thy cascades low thunder, melodious, lavs, . . Of sweet feathered songsters that warble thy praise! Farewell to thy valleys! thy deep winding glens! Thy broad-billowed uplands! thy sedee-hidden fens! The splendours and glories profuse that unfold . , To the trained gazer's visions far over the wold! One last lingPWg glance neath the sun's parting ray, ' And I turn from my beauties and' wend my sad way.