NATURE AND MAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 371, 4 November 1932, Page 3

NATURE AND MAN

Leo

Fanning.)

KOWHAI PENDANTS NOW KNOWN AS DOMINION'S NATIONAL FLOWER EMBLEM. FARMERS AND BIRDS.

(Edited by

Buy xny Englisli posies! Here's your choice unsold! Buy a blood-red myrtle-bloom. Buy the kowhai' s gold, Plung for gift gn Taupo' s face, Sign that spring has come — , Buy my clinging myrtle And I'U give you back your home! Broom behind the windy town; pollen o' the pine; Bell-bird in the leafy deep where the ratas twine; Fern above the saddle-bow; flax upon the plain — Take a flower and turn the hour and kiss your love again! KIPLING. The glowibg gold pendants of kowhai in my garden gave me a reminder to quote a passage from Kipllng's poem on New Zealand. No wonder kowhai has quietly eome to he known as New Zealand's natinnal flower! Tens of thousands of the Dominion's people could easily have this noble tree in tbeir gardens, for it is hardy. After the golden bloom come the dainty patterns of foliage in graceful habit — so pretty that one is doubtful whether the gold or the green has the greater clai mto beauty. Years ago a kowhai-lover used to send free packets of seed every saason. He has gone to his rest, but golden monuments to his memory are gleaming to-day in the spring sunshine of the North and South Islands. May that benefactor have some successors! Giory of the Dun Mountain. In his quick run through New Zealand, Kipling saw some charming scenes of native woodlands, but probably he had not such an entrancing walk as I had some years ago from the city of Nelson through the forest past ferny dells and sparkling cascades. Curious little tom-tits, in sober stiits of grey, black-hooded, come as an escort, and the glad song of the tui awakens an echo in the wooded hill. Pigeons, of flashing plumage, flutter heavily among the foliage, loth to' leave their feast of luscious berries. Through the green tracery of many c trees gleams the scarlet blossom of the rata, loved by the birds for the h'oneyed flowers. Sudenly the green gives way to blue, and tne sunlight is dazzling after the soft dimness of forest aisles. From a clearing one looks down upon the billowing verdure of the forest, ridge on ridge, in marvellous expanse, rolling away for miles. That path throogh refreshing woods is a reminder of the old tramway to the copper crown of the mountain. Investors had hopes of fortune in the ore there, but the enterprise failed. However, the track they made has enabled thousands of nature-lovers to find wealth of beauty. One notable feature by this path is the great growth of "beech trees that have risen to towering height since the tramway was made. The copper-seekers cut their way through a great stand of beech, and left a bare strip beside the tramway. > . ben they ceased from troubling the mountain's flank, Mother Nature busied herself with raising a fresh family of beech along the old trail.

Memories of Loveliness. Musing on that walk up the wooded mountain stirred thoughts of otber walks in scenes of heart's delight, and somemow brought to mind a verse of Madison Camein: — Par away, oh, far away, Where the clouds grow white and the shadows grey; Where the twilinght dreams and the rain-wind sleeps, And the haunted waterfall sobs and leaps: Oh, there, whatever the soul may say, — Par away, oh, far away, — Is the fairyland of Yesterday! War of Birds on Insects When settlers from the British Isles began to raise crops of wheat, oats and vegetables in thq "Brighter Britain of the South," they spread a feast for native insects. One can imagine a midget Moses leading hosts of pests into a promised land. Here is an extract from "Animals of New Zealand (Hutton and Drummond): — "The cultivation of cabbages, cauli- • flowers, turnips and other succulent plants was followed by an alarming increase in the numbers of native insects. Armits of saterpillars invaded the fields and consumed the crops. It was hardly possible to open a peapod without finding a caterpillar inside; and, in the Auckland dis.triet, dismayed settlers saw fields of maize under bare poles, not a leaf remaining. The food supply of the insects had been increased enormously, and they were not slow to respond.

"It was decided that the best plan to adopt, to make agriculture and horticulture possible, was to introduce insect-eating birds. But it was reeognised that these birds must not live on insects alone. There is no winter retreat for insect-eatiers in New Zealand, as there is in Europe; and if they could not sustain th'emselves on vegetable food in the winter months, when the insects were absent, they would perish. The fields of selectioft was therefore restricted to birds which would eat both seeds and insects, which would not try to migrate, and which would become common. One of the first to be introdueed was the sparrow, that unlovely, singless, and impudent vagabond of a bird, denounced by Miss E. A. Ormerod, condiemned by the English Board of Agriculture, reviled in America, and outlawed by the Parliament of New Zealand, which ealled in its help in its time of need.'? After admitting t"he sparrow's toll of grain — as wages for havoc among insects and hrugs — the authors remark: — • "Those who urge that the sparrow ought to be banished should name a substitute," Some kind of bird action is evidently necessary in nature's balance in the open country. i