Land Of Happiness And Beauty

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 3, 4 January 1941, Page 2 (Supplement)

Land Of Happiness And Beauty

NOW. more tlian ever, in the Christmas holiday lime, all our hearts turn to the far-away Xorth of the world, where thousands of our young men, and others not so young, are opposing a gallant and undaunted front to the most dreadful wars tMer conceived. While this lovely land of ours is unmolested, and" old and young follow their customary tasks, and. pleasures, and look up at the serene sky without fear, consider the daily and nightly terrors of the millions of our people iu the British Isles.

By James Cowan

Meanwhile, the best of our fighters and our brave army nurses live in the midst of death from the air, the sea, and land. There U just the one compensation for such an enterprise. Young men welcome the change of ecene and the opportunities and experiences of travel. It is the great education of their lives. They see strange places, they see also the old places of charm in their ancestors' land which would have remained unknown to most of them but for the tragedy bf war. ••• " • It is the golden privilege of Xew Zealanders, young and old at this season, to be able to enjoy holidays in all the warmth end serenity of the Southern summer, while the Old Lauds and teas are wrapped in mist and snow, frost and ice. There are difficulties in the way of travel; this is economy time and the old careWs rush and free spending are not for Xew Zealand iu wartime. Nevertheless, all of us. more especially young people, benefit from a short change of scene and occupation at this time/ The seashore, the bush, the open country, the hills —all call to those released from school and office and workshop for a brief change. The one toiler whose holiday cannot come yet is the farmer.

Holiday Scenes in Oar Northland. Recalling pleasant travel places within a convenient and inexpensive range, niv thoughts just no\T go to the Northland, at the height of its beauty. In these days of good roads, it is possible now to see more of this always interesting country on a small expenditure than it was in the past when I first travelled there, when the horse was indispensable, when

wheel roade were few or bad, and when motor cars were undreamt of. .Some of the most "heartsome" country .Zealand is on thie < rc>^-section, in my mind, from Ihe head of. tlio Northern Wairoa to the &boTV»»vi Whanjsarei Harbour, so easy to reach tf-duy. It is a noble country, a land well worth the lighting for, even more so than in the past when it fruitful soil and its pleasant hills and valleys were hitterly contested by the Maori tribes. One glorious morning, after leaving Tito Papa's eottage for travellers at the strong Mangakahia's junction with the tidal Northern Wairoa Kiver'e junction, we crosst'd the broad Wairua (don't confute with Wairoa). still hurrying from its great tumble over the ledge of volcanic rock at Oiiiiru. Turning past, and travelling along the left hank of the Wairua. the of birds eoiue«s from the tree tops at our feet. Some lovely little picnic 6|K>ts lie along the river flats below the falls, notably Motu-tere. where the rock-strewn waters enclose a small green grassy island, on which the fruit trees of a Maori orchard mingle their leaves with the native forest. Close by is one of Nature"s parks, a romantic spot where the sunlight Hickers on the maesy fern-carpeted floor through the leaves of remarkably high mautika trees, while the clear river sings over ite shingly shallows. A Little Hill Fort. Travelling on in the ilirection of Whatitiri (Thunder) Mountain, we made a halt to explore a wonderful little hill fort, which occupied a miniature mountain of its own. This is the land of the ancient trenched and terraced pa; there must be thousands of them. There is scarcely a hill in the whole of this volcanic soil region which was not carved into a place of defence and defiance by the fighting race of old. This hill fort, Okoihu, which rises out of the plains a few miles from the Poroti gninficlds, is a seriee of terraces rising in regular tiers, trenched with wooden spades, to the summit, where on a little piece of ground slightly hollowed in the centre, stood thfc "tilli,"' the citadel, where the chief families of the tribe lived. The walls and parapets ajl are covered with a mantle of native verdure —fern and flax and koromiko and the trailing convolvulus. Oti the final terrace in the sandy walk of the tilii are & series of old

FORTUNATE NEW ZEALAND

kumara slorepils; their arched roofs were as perfect when I explored them oe when they were first hollowed out generations ago. Away lieyoiul the historic fortress rises the blue dome-like height of Whatitiri Mountain, its wo<klo<l slopee rising in the ••iMitWt of curves to its summit. In the middle distance then* slumbered :i lone Maori kainga, the village of Kai-ngenge, enrroutuled by pretty cultivations and clumps of line old puriri and taraire trees. Mysterious Whatitiri wins famed for its singular rock fissures, enlled torero, great fathoinlpse earth pipes down which the Maoris were accustomed to throw the lKinets of their ]>eople, a final burial that never could be disturbed. The sacred toreree have been reserved as tapu ground 'by the Ngapnhi and their kindred; the reat of the mountain lands have gone to the pakelia farmer. A great sileitce lay heavy over the land that day. The gum digger had dug over the olden hunting grounds of the Maori and left the mark <>f his spade in couiitlexti upturned lieaps of clay, the Maori hamlets were bathed in Hβ deep a sleep ae that which descended on Rip Van Winkle; the midsummer air was drowsy with heat, only the birds and the cicada on the ferny terraces of Okoihu broke the slumber of the land. Sunshine and Cicada. On another day's journey we passed through Poroti township, and drove over the lower slopes of the '•Thunder - ' Mountain through a broad belt of bush — puriri, totarn, taraire and tawa, the most ornamental of our native tree*. The sunlight edge of the woods was resonant with the ceaseless his* and clatter of the warmth-loving cicada and the twittering song* of hidden birds. Past settlers' clearings, and then on our right is the steep volcanic hill, Miuinga-tapeie ■ — another Mount Eden in configuration, but densely clothed in bush. Here we ■open up more beautiful country. A landscape diversified with well-grassed farms, wide flelde in crops, gleaming streams, dark greeli native thickets, and forested cloudy blue mountains. Far beyond rose the heights of the Tnngiluin Hange* Then an we climbed the road on the spurs of Maiimi Mountain past groves of totara and karaka, with weeping tree feme and nikau palm, we came suddenly* on a view of the salt sea, the sinuous harbour

of Whangarei, and the high rocky islands beyond the mountainous North Head, place of legend and wild-fairy etory. • • • • After 95 Yeats. The northern ecene ie forever changing. There ie the bold look-out from Rua-pekapeka, last pa in Heke> war. Here, 12 miles - in from Kawawaka, and a thousand feet above the sea, we are on the spot where Deepard and hie naval and military expedition broke the Mnori resistance with heavy naval guns. The marvel is that he got those guns e<) far inland through unloaded unbridged country. It is an inspiring *pot. this heart of the Northland, even if you eet its story aside. Standing on the parapet, fern growli in the long peace, we see for 30 milee .irotind. Yonder to the north is the Bay of Islands, with its rocky archipelago sleeping on its calm breast; beyond blue ocean. To the east and south, wooded ranges; to the we«st, league after league of broken country far below, a landscape of many hues, dark forest*, ochre-tinted plains and deep sleeping valleys, exhaling their einoky mists. Silence except for the itceasional chuckle or deep bell-like "bong ,, of a tui in some hidden gully, and the incessant clack of the cicada in the euh-lit biwh edge. The cicada's ceaseless vibratory so blends with inanimate Nature that one's ear gradually ceasee to notice it. The Puriri Tree. Regard that grand tree the puriri. It lias been called the oak of New Zealand. Around these old battlefield hilie of the North it is particularly fine in proportions and shape. In former daye its great spreading top was made uso of in a practical way by the Maori. There is one at a h<Tmestead near Kerikeri on which a whata or storehouse for food had been built; at about 12 feet up the tree was topped, and the branches spread out horieontally, and on the broad top the ritttie house Ataa eet. It was reached 'by a notched log set as a ladder ugainet the trunk. Around native villages, such as Ohaeawai, there are some enormous old puriri, thick with masses of epiphytic plants which find hospitable lodgment in the deep branch forkF. Some grand specimens of English oaks, too, grow in these Northern "haunts of ancient peace." Their histories are on record. »