THE POPULAR KITE

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 9

THE POPULAR KITE

FOR WINDY DAYS.

SCIENTIFIC PLAYTHING.

THE ART Or GOING- TJT.

To the Eastern peoples and the Maoris ef heathen days it was an instrument of deep spiritual significance; to Sir Benjamin Frnaklin and other famous scientists it was an instrument of discovery; to the soldier it was, and is, an instrument of strategic warfare; , and to the "kids," it is just a plaything—a kite. To-day over Auckland, when the ■winds blow, there is rejoicing in young hearts, and on the skyline there are hundreds of floating, ducking, spinning and rising kites. Of their history and their many uses the youngsters care not. "Kites" is a game in which cunningness of hand in instruction and flying control may give tfce kingship of the air. The kite that hangs, forlorn and broken, on the telegniph wire or the tree, the kite that will not rise and float proudly, is a symbol of failure, until renewed effort brings success. The real "kid's" kite bears no fancy name and flaunts little colour, save where it is fashioned from a "comic" paper. It is the common or garden diamond kite, made of two sticks lashed in a cross, with, stretched over them, the brown paper or the newspaper that is their wind surface. It gains its supremacy by the lightness of its structure, the balance of its sticks, and the weight of its tail with the knotted paper drags. To The Launching. Jack and Jimmy and Tommy and Hori carry each his paper freight of genius to the park or the hillside, and there it is cast upon the wind in the final testing. Treasured pennies have gone in the cotton reel* or the balls of string that will hold the thing of flight to this earth and control it. Their argument on a construction basis is as technical as that of the motor mechanic. And then

they go, string or cotton held in hand above head level, feet running, but eyes cast backwards. Perhaps it will rise straight and fly steady, and the dream is reality; perhaps it will waver and dip from side to side before steadying; perhaps it will spin and crash to the ground. There is room - for philosophical discussion in the flying of a kite—room for a sermon—but the "kid" has no thought of that. It is a kite, a game, a competition, with room for running, for jousting, for breathless excitement and for fun. The taut string runs out as the wind catches the surface of the kite and it flies in the face of the sun, rising and rising. There is need for manipulation and skill, and for constant watchfulness. Some other kite may be fouled and the flight of both spoiled, or the wind may be gusty and many precious feet of height lost if the eye and the hand are not careful. It has the thrill of fishing and the achievement of flight. "Flying * Kite." As your encyclopaedia will inform you, kite flying is "the art of sending up in the air, by means of wind, light frames of varying shapes, covered, with paper or cloth, which are attached to long cords or wires, held in the hand or wound on a drum." As your own knowledge of idiom will inform you, it has other colloquial meanings. To the financially beleagured to ''fly a kite' 'is another terms for "raising the wind," or borrowing ;to the politician it means, a test of feeling to "see how the wind blows"—"to set a sprat to catch a mackereL" It has had a significant place in the life of man since the dawn of history and beyond. On the winds of tine man has always been ready to fly a kite. - Tradition has it, if you are interested, that the kite was invented by Archytas, of Tarentum, four centuries before the Christian era, but the kite been in use among Asiatic peoples, and our own Maori race since time immemorial. It is a national pastime still among the Koreans, the Chinese, Japanese, Tonkinese, Annamese, Malays and East Indians, and in China the ninth day of the ninth month is etill "Kites' Day." Religious Origin. Its origin is obscure, but it is ascribed to religious influences. With the Maori it_ had definite religious characteristics. Bishop Bennett, of Aotearoa, tells how in the Gisborne * district " an unknown

member of a tribe had offended against "tapu." A kite was flown that the Atua (gods) might direct the way to the guilty man. It dropped again and again over a particular place, and the offending Maori was found there. The ascent of the kite was accompanied by the chanting of the "kite song."

The kite has been used for military purposes in the dropping of messages, and of bombs, and in the taking of photographs, and experiments have proven that a man can be carried up in a kite. It has had its place in the scientific world since .the middle of the 18th century, and the box-kite is used extensively in meteorological observations. In this manner it won fame for Sir Benjamin Franklin, when, in 1752, he made a kite experiment, attracted electricity from the air, and demonstrated the electric nature of lightning. So the kite has its place in the world, and in the hearts of each succeeding generation.