Poetry, etc. IMMORTALITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 375, 8 June 1889, Page 1

Poetry, etc. IMMORTALITY.

I took a tiny pansy seed And laid it in the mould, Then waited patiently to see The first green leaves unfold. Timo passed, and from the silent sod Theiecame no living sound, But soon the little embryo Appeared above the ground. It grew in joy and beauty, Kissed by sunbeams, washed by showers, 'Till summer came and robed it In a wealth of showy flow eis. And now a^ if in thankfulness For life and beauty given, My pure, sweet, waxen pansies lilfc Their purple eyes to heaven. I took the silent chrysalis, So motionless and still", And laid ifc very carefully Upon my window sill, Where biightly shone from out the E.ibt The first beams of the sun j And in those narrow prison walls A wondrous chirige began One morn a biilliant butterfly Flew gaily round my room ; Buist »vere the bands that bound it; Deserted was its tomb. With beauty, grace and loveliness It cheered the summer hours, And fed upon the nectar Stored in the fragrant flowers. I stood beside a casket — The 2,' em had soared away To join in Heaven's diadem A glittering galaxy. But bending o'er the casket I thought of. days now fled And of one who bore no likeness To the changed aud faded fiend, And I seemed to see the merriment That sparkled in her eye, And to hear again the merry laugh I heard in days gone by. And I thought how soon the casket Hid in the earth's embrace Would fadeaway, nor leave behind In Men.ory's hall a trace. And as a last long tribute That Friendship's hand could pay r Ere to the lonely tomb ihey bore The cold and lifeless clay, F plucked m}' fragile pansies To lay upon her bier, And bade them carry with them The language of a tear. Emblems of angel puiity — Could angels be more fair ? And as their sweet broathed incense Was flung upon the air Faith whispered, though not on the earth,, Yet in a heavenly fane, 'The resurrection casket Shall hold the gem again !' 0' little seed interred in earth Thy wondrous change is wrought! 0, butterfly, the chrysalis Was once thy burial spot ! Both, from a dark and gloomy grave To life nnd beanty born. 0, mouldering clay! Thou too shall have* A resurrection morn ! And lovelier shall the seraph be Than butterfly or flower ; And holier ?hall the voices be That bless that waking hour. For though thebutteifly and flower May sink 'noath Winter's frost, And though their br'ght symbolic forms Muy be forever lost, Yet when the soul shall gather up The ashes of her clay Man shall through endless years defy The empire of decay

According to the latest Return, issued from the Registrar-General's office, Wellington, May 20th, and published in the last Gazette, the total population of New Zealand 31st March last was 652,125 ; ofexnlmive of Maoris (who number 41.969,610,156. The passengers by the Alamedi, which called <it Apia on her voyage to San Fnncmco, weip besieged on her arrival at the latter port by Pi-pss representatives eiger to obtain particulars of the Samoan hurricane. TLe " Bulletin " publishes u full report, which, it stsitc<», w:is kindly fur— nisned by Mr H. Brett, of the Auckland Star. As usual, when a journalist is known to be moving round, Mr Brett had to submit to a good deal of 'interviewing' in S; n Francisco. The mornins; " Call " publishes a column repoitof an interview with him on the mail question, Samoan topics, and the shortness of the wheat crop in N 'W So nth Wales, which has led to lar°;e Gilifornian shipments. The '• Call" observes : "Mr Brett is one of the best known and most successful of: colonial jinrnniijsts. Since his arrival heiv on the Alameda ho has been a most a v si lnous sight-seer, hiving contrived to se) not only San Francisco, hut also the surrounding counties of Sonoma, Santa Claia, Alarnedii, Napa, an-1 S iciamcnto." The skilled hand* in the employment oE the North-Western Ikihvjiy Company, England, have decided that the}' do not want to be provided for in their old age ; It seems that the company, which has 5,000 skilled hands in its employment, s< me j'ear-* ago got its employes to consent t > the establishment of a pension fun 1, by a ema'l deduction from wages. Out (f this fund, c\ cry man at the age of G5 « ns to receive a subsistancc allowance. The men have now decided that thov pivfer present enjoyment to future "rifely, and allege that the benefit is too distant. The decision seems to be a singularly shortsighted one, and it has greatly dashed the hopes of many who had taken l keen interest in the improvement of the woikiug classes.