A LAKE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 723, 24 July 1929, Page 16

A LAKE

But one glimpse I had of it. There amid the hillsides green, But that single stretch was lit On the waters’ silver sheen With the sunset’s dazzling light, Like a fish’s wondrous scales, At the coming of the night, With the glow that seldom fails. Silver, rainbow-hued it gleamed, Like a mirror fallen down, So it shone, and so it seemed With its fringe of bracken brown. —Dancing Star (Margaret Bartrum, aged 14). A MAORI LEGEND Most of the native flowers in Xew Zealand have legends asspciated with them and this is the story connected with the beautiful crimson rata. Rata was a great chief who was much loved by all the birds and insects in the bush. His greatest enemies were the Moonlight Goblins, and the birds and insects helped him to make the war canoe in which he and his warriors set out to engage his foes in battle. But he had other enemies, for Poronga, who was jealous of Rata’s power, stole his wife while he was away fishing. When, on returning, Rata discovered this, he was very angry, and hastened to Poronga’s dwelling to demand her. As Poronga refused to give her up, Rata challenged him to a combat. The two chiefs fought long and hard in a little clearing, and, although they were evenly matched, Rata possegsed the more cunning mind of the two. So well matched were they that for a long while neither could gain advantage over the other. Then suddenly Rata hurled Poronga to the ground. Poronga. who was determined that Rata should not return to his people, had ordered his men to surround the bush. Immediately their chief fell they charged the spot, yelling and shouting hideously. Rata called unto the great gods to deliver him, and, being such a brave chief, they cast a spell, and changed him into a clinging vine, with pointed leaves and masses of bright, crimson ! flowers. Thus, in the bush, the rata vine serves as a monument to this great chief. TO ORDER The guide was showing a party some of the natural wonders of the locality, and one persistent questioner tried to monopolise his attention. “Where did those great rocks come from?” asked the persistent one. “The glaciers brought them down,” j was the reply. “But where are the glaciers?” was i the next question. “Oh,” replied the bored guide, “they j have gone back for more rocks.”