The Press. MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1906. "LOVE THOU THY LAND."

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12570, 13 August 1906, Page 6

The Press. MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1906. "LOVE THOU THY LAND."

The International Exhibition will doubtless increase our interest in foreign countries. Might it not be utilised also for making New Zealandere better acquainted with their ownP Of course, the other centres of the colony will display their products, end the Touriet Department Trill endeavour to popularise our alpine scenery. But trade and travel do not exhaust the interest of a land to ite own people; they do not quite touch that feeling which makes the patriot look with affectionate eyo upon every outward feature of his country—whether it be barren or productive, beautiful or plain. Doubtless it is amongst mountaineers that thia sentiment is found in ite greatest intensity. To the Swiss, the Tyroleae, the Welsh and the Scotch Highlanders, love of country amounts to a passion which is rarely felt by dwellera on the plains. Yet Englishmen have had their share of it, and its strongest manifestation was in the great EHzabethan period. To Shakespeare and bis Armada-quelling contemporaries it wee no affectation to speak of "This blesseu plot, this earth, thisrealm, this England," and it was precisely amongst that stalwart generation that we find the first evidences of a real inteirest in the country's geographical features. Oamden, who compiled the first description of Britain, was indeed a schoolmaster and wrote in Latin, but his, "Britannia." was soon translated in obedience to a popular demand. When Shakespeare represents Mortimer and Hotspur as busy over the map of England, following the course ofHhe "smug and silver " Trent," and noticing its "cranking" turns, he betreye the feelings of his own awakened age rather than those of the illiterate period" in which the scene is laid. Jn> modern times the physical features of a country's surface have won an altogether new interest tfhrough the labours of tie geologist, who tells us how they cam© to be what they are. But it is not everybody who can enter with intelligence info the story of prehistoric periods, and in amy case r> necessary preliminary is a fair ac quajntanco with the contour of th< coun/try as it is to-day. Amd to man; this surface knowledge affords intere© ©hough. In her mountaine am glaciers, her lakes and rivers, Nev Zealand possesses an inexhaustible fiek of pleasure. To see them of course it best., but it is not everyone who eai ! afford time and money for exploring out-of-the-way regions. Picture post cards are doing something to fill uj tho void, but there ought to be a goc*3 map of the colony within tho reach of all. The production of such a map is not, perhaps, strictly within tJic duties of tho Tourist Department, but it is a work which that Department might well *ake in haitd. Already it provides excellent sectional maps of tihe soenjc portions of the country; why should it not deal with the whole? Good maps hanging in every office and factory might give much pleasure, as well as strengthen the patriotic sentiment. Lord Avebury has noted that our ancestors looked upon rivers as being in some sense alive, and he has shown horw much Jiving interest is bound up with the courses of the Rhone, tihe Rhine and the Thames. In Canterbury the configuration of the land is auch that we are accustomed to think of a river te a body of water whioh simply sweeps straight from the the sea. A study of the map, however, will soon chow that all South Island rivers are not -thus disposed. The neighbouring province of Xeleon has a very different talo to tell. Take for instance the case of fcfoe Waiau and the Clarence. These two rivers rising close to one another in the Spencer Mountains, and flowing in parallel couraes for many miles, afterwards desert one another and reach the sea bjr tho most diverse routes. A study

of the map further shows how in this case the explorer or early surveyor has aided the cartographer. Surrounding tho sources of both riveirs with an atmosphere of poetry, he has yet carefully differentiated them. The Waiau rises in tho Spencer Range, and is fed from Mount Una and the Faerie Qiicene. The Clarence, flowing through Lako Tennyson,; passes by Mount Guinevere and Mount Princess. ' Our rivers possess plenty of interest, however, without any fanciful nomenclature. But how many of the passengers in the south express realiso that the Waitaki, which they cross half-way to Dunedin, ie fed by the glaciers of Mount Cook? How many havo taken the trouble to trace the course .of the Clutha through its two and a half degrees of latitude, and to notice that it drains not only the great lakes of Otago but even tho south-western corner of Canterbury? These and numberleas other features are probably pointed out by our school teachem to their pupils, yet we doubt if many adults are at all familiar with them. The democratic countries of the Old World take good care that the people shall be supplied with cheap and excellent maps which shall keep in memory the patriotic geography first inculcated in the school. Oar Government migln; well follow this good example. Another point in the practice of older countries we should like to commend to the Exhibition authorities. Why should not on© of the towers be furnished with a dial engraved with tho names of all the mountains visible on the horizoc, and furnished with sliding eights -which should enable the observer to locate each peak with accuracy. Such an instrument would give much pleasure, and in conj unction with a good map would enable the dwellers on the plains to become a little more familiar with tho lees-known portions of their own islands.