NATURE-AND MAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 257, 13 October 1932, Page 5

NATURE-AND MAN

GOLD PENDANTS OF KOWHAI FARMERS AND BIRDS. (EDITED BY LEO FANNING.) 3uy my English posies! Here’s your choice unsold! Buy a blood-red myrtle bloom, Buy the kowhai’s gold. Flung for gift on Taupo’s face, Sign that spring has come— Buy my clinging myrtle And 11l give you back your home Broom behind the windy town; pollen o’ the pine; Bell-bird in the leafy deep where the ratas twine; Fern above the saddle-bow'; flax upon the plain— Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again! —Kipling. The glowing gold pendants of kowhai in my garden gave me a reminder to quote a passage from Kipling's poem ju New Zealand. No wonder kowhai aas quietly come to bo known as New Zealand’s national flower! Tens o! thousands of the Dominion s people could easily have this noble tree in their gardens for it is hardy. After the golden bloom come the dainty patterns of foliage in graceful habit—so pretty that one is doubtful -whether the gold or the green has the greater claim to beauty. Years ago a kowhai-lover used to send free packets of seed every season. He has gone to his rest, but golden monuments to his memory are gleaming to-day in the spring sunshine of the North and South Islands. May that benefactor have some successors! GLORY OF THE DUN MOUNTAIN. In his quick run through New Zealand, Kipling saw some charming scenes of native woodlands, but probably he mid not such an entrancing walk as I had some years ago from the city of Nelson to the Dun Mountain. Mile upon mile a well-graded path winds through the forest, past ferny dells and sparkling cascades. Curious little tomtits, in sober suits of grey, black-hood-ed, ome as an escort, and tne glad song of the tui awakens an echo in the wooded hill.

Pigeons, of flashing plumage, flutter ,-eavily among the foliage, loth to leave their feast of luscious berries. Through ,ne green tracery of many trees gleams the scarlet blossoms of the rata loved by the birds for the honeyed flowers. Suddenly the green gives way to blue, and the sunlight i s dazzling after the soft dimness of forest aisles. From a clearing one looks down upon the billowing verdure of the forest, ridge on ridge, in marvellous expanse, rolling away for miles. That path, through refreshing woods, is a reminder of the old tramway to the copper crown of the mountain. Investors had hopes of fortune in the ore there, but the enterprise failed. However, the track they made has enabled thousands of nature lovers *to find wealth of beauty. One notable feature by this path is the great growth of beech trees that have risen to towering height since the tramway was made. The copper-seekers cut their way through a great stand of beech and left a bare strip beside the tramway. When they ceased from troubling the mountain’s flank, Mother Nature busied herself with raising a fresh family of beech along the old trail. MEMORIES OF LOVELINESS. Musing on that walk up the wooded mountain stirred thoughts of other walks in scenes of heart’s delight, and somehow brought to mind a verse of Madison Cawein:— Far away oh, far away, Where the clouds grow white and the shadows grey; Where the twilight dreams and the rain-wind sleeps, And the haunted waterfall sobs and leaps; Oh, there, whatever the soul may say, Far away, oh, far away, Is the faeryland of Yesterday! WAR OF BIRDS ON INSECTS. When settlers from the British Isles began to raise crops of wheat, oats, and vegetables in the “Brighter Britain of the South,” they spread a feast for native insects. One can imagine a midget Moses leading hosts of pests into a promised land. Here is an extract from “Animals of New Zealand” (Hutton and Drummond): — “The cultivation of cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, and other succulent plants, was followed by an alarming increase in the numbers of native insects. Armies of caterpillars invaded the fields and consumed the crops. It was hardly possible to open a pea-pod without finding a caterpillar inside; and, in the Auckland district, dismayed settlers saw fields of maize under bare poles, not a leaf remaining. The food supply of the insects had been increased enormously, and they were not slow to respond. “It was decided that the best plan to adopt, to make agriculture and horticulture possible, was to introduce in-sect-eating birds. But it was recognised that these birds must not live on insects alone. There is no winter retreat for insect-eaters in New Zealand, as there is in Europe; and if they could not sustain themselves on Vegetable food in the winter months, when the insects were absent, they would perish. The field of selection was therefore restricted to birds which would eat both seeds and insects, which would not try to migrate, and which would become common. One of the first to be introduced was the sparrow, that unlovely, songless, and impudent vagabond of a bird, denounced by Miss E. A. Ormerod. condemned by the English Board of Agriculture, reviled in America, and outlawed bv the Parliament of New Zealand, which called in its help in its time of need.” After admitting the sparrow’s toll of grain—as wages for havoc among insects and grubs—the authors remark:— “Those who urge that the sparrow ought to be banished should name a substitute.” Some kind of bird action 5s evidentlv necessary in nature’s balance in the open country. Which is the best bird for successful warfare against devonrers of crops I DEER—TOO DEAR. “The result of the whole stock of deer from this great area being concentrated in the bush for some months is that every green thing within reach is eaten and the ground > trampled Hkc a

stockyard.” That is not an extract from a report of the Forestry League or a bulletin of the Native Bird Protection Society, but is a passage from the annual report of the Department of Internal Affairs. The deer wage war against New Zealand in two ways in the high country. In spring, summer, and autumn they raid the upland farms, and when winter drives them into the bush they commit immeasurable damage there. They are a grfevious nuisance tlrfSvholc year round.