SPRING GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

SPRING GOLD.

THE KOWHAI'S GIFT. A HYMN TO COLOUR. (By CYRANO.) Svocib row where Colour, the soul's bridegroom, makes The louse of heaven splendid for the bride. She holds the flower to heaven, and bv his pow Brings heaven to the flower —George Meredith, "Hymn to Colour." The very colour?, of her coat "R'cre better than good news. —G. K. Chesterton, "In the spring a young maw's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of—murder." go says a friend in the 'forties, that dangerous age, when the fire of youth sinks perceptibly and men fall gently and sadly into the habit of talking about their ailments. It is-little use mentioning to such men the wind upon ithe heath or the kowhai's gold. They turn upon you an eye like a Christchurch easterly, and remark that the wind upon the heath does not interest them; what fills their mind for the moment is the wind of spring, which gives them indigestion and rheumatism. Youth may take it from middle age that spring can be the. most trying of seasons —-trying to the body and temper, blustering, perverse, sour and unfriendlv. Youth is supposed to dance in the fields among the young lambs to the sound of pipes. Middle age prefers a warm lireside and a different kind of pipe. Yet, spring has wonders that can still stir the heart within the creaking and aching body. That seat of the emotions I still leaps up when it beholds a hillside of gorse or a kowhai tree in full bloom. | You may be walking along a windwhipped street, cold and disgruntled, Unmindful of the pageant of tender green that is unfolding around you, and then, suddenly, a splash of warm gold seems to light up the landscape. The solitary tree, hanging its treasure oil high, and, like its cousin the laburnum, "dropping wells of fire," makes brave music in the wo*kl, and its sweetness vibrates in the memory long after you have passed it by. Dead seasons quicken in one petal-spot Of colour unforgot. In a little volume just published a JTew Zealand poet sings thus of the ikowhai: 0, golden tree-, slender and debonair! Wo leaf to see, Silt each slim bough alight, And swaying free. With lit fie flames of blossom, burning ' bright.

The Loveliest Sight. She calls her poem,"A Young Kowhai in Spring," and the adjective is important. Old kowhais are neither slender nor debonair; indeed, they are apt to show ugly signs of age. The young kowhai, well shaped and set against a background that, shows up its richness of colour, is surely the loveliest sight in our New Zealand spring. "Jvowhai Gold" is the name given to a new ~, authology of our. verse, and what could oe better'? The beauty is glorious and distinctive, the resplendent - banner Of pur spring. The kowhai swings above me, A crown of glittering gold, And all along the valley New life and love unfold. Against our sombre trees it raises the challenge of colour. Otherwise on our native landscape gold is confined to tus60ck country, and then it is dependent upon the caprice of the sun. The gold of the kowhai is vivid and bountiful, and the pity is that it is 60 rarely seen. One of our leading botanists Las said that the kowhai has inspired onoro poets, from Domett to Eileen Duggan, For the.r had heard from goldeu tree, With dripping beak, a tui sing, than any other New Zealand flower. Mr. Kipling's is one of the best: Buy the kowhai's gold, '-■■■ Flung for gift 011 Taupe' 3 face, Sign that spring is coinc. But how many New Zealanders have seei; the kowhai groves at Taupo in flower? It must be,one of the most beautiful sights in New Zealand, but, alas, we are tied to our jobs in spring. When flying becomes common we -may talk of "running up" to Taupo to see the kowhai, as people-go to Bushey Park to see the chestnuts, or to Kew to see, the bluebells. I think, however, that the adequate poem on the kowhai has yet to he written. Some day a poet will see a perfect kowhai at a turn of a bush road, its spread of gold against the dark green, and lie or she (it is just as likely to he she) will capture its colour and, its music. It is, however, for all that has been written about it, not a com-' mon flower. One suspfects there must ho thousands of New Zealanders who do not, recognise the kowhai, and it is possible to be br.ought up in a bush district without ever seeing it. Short-lived Glory. The kowhai's glory is short-lived, and for tlio rest of the year the tree is inconspicuous. This may endear it the ' more to us, and we are toid that the fairest things have fleetest end." That beautiful imported pest, gorse, has the advantages of spaciousness and- almost continuous flowering. When the great Linnaeus went down on his knees before it ho acted a hymn to colour, and set the world an example in the woi- . ship of common things. Our poets seem ■ almost as fond of gorse as of kowhai. , "The gold of noisy gorse" is one of tle . Items in Seaforth Mackenzie's unror- . gettable landscape of the cocksfoo 'track. The tea-tree is really our national flower; it is beautiful and com- i mon, but its very commonness tells _ against its use in the home; certain y one rarely sees it there. It "would 0 interesting if a florist catalogued it , "without its Tjopular or Maori names, but with a perfectly truthful descrip Won of its beauty. How the faces o _ customers would fall when tuey found 1 what they had got! „ Like gorse, tea-tree has a long ow . \ fag time, but it has its special spring 1 beauty. Good New Zealanders Jeai" £ "with What wet mystery mamjj * bloweth in the spring," and - they i not change it for the richer gory > gorse. As I write I can see a bush that < 6eems to have more flowers than 1 It tells the same story as the mD ] e r ] but more simply and with Wic ] gestures. It isf indeed, the complement ( to the kowhai's gold. White, « colourless transparency of ho > 1 symbols of eternity. t I saw Eternity the other night, orK ii es s i Like a great ring of pure > light. . , 1 ■£a calm as It was bright.