RANGIRIRI, FROM THE OLD PA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4407, 29 September 1871, Page 3

RANGIRIRI, FROM THE OLD PA.

Dear Sir,— l beg to forward for insertion (should you approve of it) in the columns of your weekly paper a short poem, which I have entitled " llangiriri, from the Old Pah." The view from the old Maori Pa on the height at Rangiriri is varied, pleasing, and picturesque: to me indeed it appears to be of surpassing loveliness. Below, the broad \V.uka.to is soeu winding gracefully in its course, ltd banks studded at intervals with wrepiug willows of immense size, whose foliage droops low to the water's edge. Landward, under their bi oad shadov/j, luposcthe ashes of many a Maori v> amor, long since parsed away. Behind, the scenery is also beautiful, but more wild, grand, and imposing. The hills rear their lofty summits hcavenwaul, and nestling close beneath them clear and calm, lies the broad lake, in which, as in a polished mirror, the wavy and irregul.n outline of the almost overhauling lulls are di^inetly rejected. There are mmy buch pleasant places as Kangr iriseattorul throughout the Colony, which unly u-qune the pen of the pout, or the artist's pencil, to place them vividly in all their beauty before the eye or imagination of the colonist, and thus awaken in his breast those feelings of love ami attachment to this, Ins adopted country, which shall fit him to become not only a lover of the beautiful and varied handiwoik of N.'luro, bub i sincere and devoted patriot, ft was this feeling of love .uul veneration for Ih mi- beautiful country which inspired the (iie.Jcs of old with such patnofcicanlnur, and converted thorn into tho heroes of Muiathon and Thermopylae. Let us hope that the growing nations of the Southern Hemisphere m iy, in this respect at least, emulate their example. — I am, &c,

Wm. Johns.