BRUNNER'S PARADISE: MOANA

Grey River Argus, 26 June 1906, Page 4

BRUNNER'S PARADISE : MOANA

(By Dr T. F. Macdonald.)

Te Kinga looks in Brunner Lake, Te Kinga looks divine, - His peaks of ; crimson snow above the , swathes of purple pine, Reflected, when the sunset turns the water into wine. There, rivers gambol on'the hills,' and 1 splash their nether_ way O'er amethystine waterfalls into a soundless bay; But, Brunner, and his pioneers, Te Kinga, where are they? ' O, ipainter, bring thy brush ! Moana's mountains, lake, and fen ' Are waiting here with gifts fopthee to glad the lives of men ; * " v And, poet, Brunner's luckless fate awaits thy tragic pen ! To 1 find a track from sea to sea brave Brunner and his mates Had conquered mountains, forests, • streams and reached the golden \ gates That swing upon Te Kinga's heights— where history weeps and waits. Their names are written on the rocks ; ' but nothing more we know Of that intrepid band of men who from Te Kinga's snow Dispovered Brunner's Paradise, perri chance to sleep below; May those who reap the precious fruit ■sown by the pioneers Whb biaze the mountain and the bush in the far future years Remember Brunner's paradise, a paradise with tears. -