TRAFALGAR DAY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13886, 21 October 1905, Page 8

TRAFALGAR DAY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Jfat ours thy birthplace, -with its meadows green, Its elms, its English fragrance, Old-world calm: Not ours thy seas—strait channel, examin’d •with ships, Baltic, or storied Mediterranean: On’rs not thine eager enmities:' and, ah! Not ours, no longer ours, the aim and hold Of thy moat eager love —those far-away Dear shores illustrious, by thy life secured, Saved by thy death: thro’ that great life, that death Triumphant, that superb and stainless Jove, Bear, how much more! how much more glorious! No—none of these, companions of thy days, Nelson! are ours. Half the round world away, ’Mid seas thy vessels never sail’d, we dwell; We keep in peace our flocks and herds; wo fight No foe, save friendly Nature. Must we then Regret, repent, and visionary stand, Wistful amid fair fortunes? Ah, not bo! Thou, thou thyself ant ours! We did not leave *' Our heroes with our Motherland, or sink Our birthright in the intervening seas. Thou still art ours—nay, knit by newer bonds. Native as sap within our green estate, Ours more than ever—O thou Sailor-Saint Of all who dwell amid the isles, and go Bown to the sea, in ships! thou champion true. Past thy vow’d cause, of causes yet to come: Who, having timely fenced with fear and fame Our Mother, \vast the bulwark to our birth. And to our youngling growth the establish’d stay! And, O thou heart of sun, thou soul -of fire, Spirit of zeal and zest: to terror blind, In danger joyous, in hot victory Unto thy foes a saviour; what avail Centuries, worlds—what, all vicissitude Of Fortune, Fashion, Life or Death—to part Thee from our love, the exultant love of all True human kind? who, at the oft-told tale Of thine imperishable ardour, glow Into new life, at the a_wakening touch Of thine heroic nature) spring up, free In heart, mind, soul; lift high the dauntless head,. Glorying.'in thy glory—how it, next. In reverence, humbler, prouder, worthier Men: In humble, proud, most manly reverence deep. And, thou, New Zealand! gallant land of . youth, Spirit and liberty! that'also ridest, Careless and strong, the charger of the Seas— Home also well-be.oved, and glorious shores, Worthy to live and die for: thou • (who knows?), Destined, it maybe, in the turn of time, And the revolving world, thyself to assume The Island heritage—to scan, to see. And, in the vaward of great deeds to com© (Whether of blood and hate, or love and skill), • To guide the advancing nations:— Oh,, behold In. him here*, dead an hundred years ago, More live to-day than many a living man, A tutor unto, fame; an Admiral Whom following, with a favouring waft from Heaven, Thou must infallibly and shortly sail Straight unto glory! O’er thy living waves, On thine unfetter'd breezes to fly free. Thy splendid and unsullied air to Hoist with a will, and heartily acclaim This clear, conspicuous signal- of his life: “ Self last; ow’d,service first. Before Delight, Duty; and after Honour, everything.” B. E. BAUGHAN.