CAPTAIN COOK'S 155TH ANNIVERSARY.

Shannon News, 17 October 1924, Page 1

CAPTAIN COOK'S 155TH ANNIVERSARY.

ITS RELATION TO NEW ZEALAND. POETRY.

Sir, In these days of wireless wonders I was very much surprised to read this week that it took over two months for a message to come out from the hub of the universe notifying the 155th anniversary of the date of the discovery of New Zealand by Capt. Cook. It caused m e to ''think furiously" and I am really very, grateful for the phenomenon as thereby the train of thought led to research in the annals of New Zealand verse for some recognition, appreciation or record of the great adventure. More particularly as in "these Islands, first colonised by Europeans less than a century ago, there has existed right from the very" beginning a tradition that it was a good thing to write poetry. ■ v

The tradition has grown with the years. Every year, how, one or two fresh come to birth, and promptly die of neglect on the part of the public; for, in marked contrast with the Australians, the New Zealanders, though they write poetry, do not read their own poets. Some of these volumes deserve the sudden death they suffer; others, show an amount of promise which cannot be expected to find more than "occasiohal fulfilment; a few show more than promise.

In the generation of the pioneers that is passing away literary effort was inevitably a rare thing; men's energies were set too sternly to battle with the material facts of life to leave then time for cultivating its graces. The second generation has still before it the task of establishing the nation whose foundations were set by our fathers, and we,' too, have comparatively little time for things not practical. There is a time which some of us look for, when New Zealand will be assigned a place among the nations, not only an account ,of its exports of wool, dairy produce and gold, or for t richness and worth in "Gloagings" and"AH'Blacks" but also by reason of its contributions to art and science—when there will" be more than one New-Zealand scientist in the Royal Society, and more than one New Zealand poet in the anthologies; and "when New Zealand books, New Zealand pictures, New Zealand statues and buildings wil gain some repute and note in the civilized world." That time-has not yet arrived. Nevertheless, there are first fruits ripe already. And even the hardest-headed race, of farmers and shepherds and workers'in wood and metal has its dreams and its seers of. visions (and even sends some of them into Parliament), and may be helped by the labour of such towards the deep breasted fulness of mature nationality. The best recorded reference to Captain Cook the writer has been able to trace is that contained in D. M. Ross's "Maoriland." Child of'Old Empire.' Best beloved, alone! The wizard moon and all her starry fays; Have made their mirror in thy waterways, Beneath the "shadow of the red sun's, throne: I When the sea-hero burst into thy zone Of dreaming silence, through the purple haze, What lucid visions let his» raptured gaze, What heart-hopes sang to ocean's monotone! And he, perchance, hath joy of theu to-day, Who won the e from the ' unrelenting gale, ' The hopeless calm and the inconstant breeze; Where, out beyond Death's sea-track, worlds away, The winds are wooed by his triumphant sail, To mad airs and sonorous symphonies. The Bell-Bird, In "A Leave-Taking," by Frederick Napie r Broome. th e following is the 'ninth of its fourteen verses : "A singing place fitter than vessel * Cold winds dra»w away to the sea, Where many birds flutter and nestle, And come near and wonder at me, Where th e bell-bird sets solitudes singing; Many times I have heard and thrown down My lyre despair of all singing; For things lovely what word is a crown Like,the song of a bird?" Broome, who was an amateur squatter and afterwards a colonial governor, says in a foot-note to the poem that the bell-bird's song delighted Captain Cook, who heard it when his ship was lying about a quarter of a mile from the shore: —• "And in the morning we were awakened by the singing of the bell-birds (or mako-mako). The number was incredible and they seemed to strain their throats in emulation of each other. This wild melody was infinitely superior to any that we hav e ever heard, of the same kind; it seemed to be like small bells, most exquisitely tuned; and perhaps the distance and the water between might be no small advantage to the sound."

To Sir George Grey. Sir George Grey wa s Governor of New Zealand for terms of several years immediately before and after his governorship of Cape Colony. At a later period he was Superintendent of th e province of Auckland, one of the representatives of Auckland City in Parliament, and for two years premier of New Zealand. Thomas Bracken (whose 'Not Understood" was often recited by Richard John Seddon, with "tears in his voice") could see no worthy object in Captain Cook for fhis art; but penned the following sonnet to Sir George Grey:— "Within a forest stood a grand old Whose head above the other plants rose high; He was the forest's first-born. Sun and sky Had known him, and had smiled on him l ere he Had kinsfolk near, or leafy brethren nigh; T;h e wild birds brought to him their minstrelsy,

The singers knew that when the scene was rude, He grew and gave a shelter to their race. By him the wandering melodists were wooed To trill and warble in that lofty place; A sanctuary in the solitude, ''?■' He gave to them •In him the birds could trace, -•- *' The forest's king, and so from hills and plains They flew to him, and sang their sw-eetest strains." Perhaps some of the many thousands to whom these thoughts:will be broadcasted can say whether there are as yet any signs of the distinctive school of New Zealand poetry. I am no bard and merely* subscribe myself "JIM THE PENMAN." Aokautere, October 10th, 1924. [P.S.—Captain Cook's 155th anniversary—discovery of New Zealand i —was on October Sth. not August ,8 th. —Jim.] : *