KOWHAI FLOODS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17586, 17 September 1917, Page 8

KOWHAI FLOODS.

NEW ZEALAND'S FLOWER OF SPRING. (By JAMES COWAN.) High up in the gorges of the WahiPari, iho Place of Cliffs, the strong Wanganui c.imo rolling and roaring down between its lofty papa walls, kickie-fringed and tree-feathered, in a tremendous yellow volume, five and twenty feet above its normal level ' It was the beginning of September of a few years back, and the " Kowhai floods " were on, the great spring rains of tho high bush country. The old hinds of Pipiriki, white and Maori, remombered scarcely a wetter spring. For nearly a week it had been steadily pouring, and every tributary and creek was a furious torrent, sending down a terrifio sluice to swell the great main stream and make navigation a business of difficulty and even danger along a hundred miles of waterway. Here at Pipiriki, very nearly sixty miles from the sea, the wharf was deep under water, and the powerful rapid-climbing little steamer tied up well inside and high above her usual berth. The sight of the swollen river, plunging down through its curving valley, was sufficiently wild from the Pipiriki terrace, but far more savage was it's aspect as we found it next day, bound upstream a dozen miles or so to the Native settlement of Pari-nui. The steamboat the two of us boarded, a little shallowdraught screw affair, was specially designed for the rough up-river work. A curious feature about her was the two big rudders she wore, broad apparently out of all proportion to her size; the pair were necessary in this navigation of powerful waters. The successive shallows and rapids in tim Wahi-Pari had disappeared, covered deeply by the great flood, and the whole river was in fpr** one long rapid, against which our struggling steamer could scarcely make headway in the narrower and swifter runs. Sometimes we seemed to measure our up-stream progress by inches, crawling up with every pound of steam the boilers could safely bear against a current that threatened often nnd often to send us smashing against the perpendicular walls of tho canon. Waterfalls were everywhere; one foaming white cascade leaped in a clear parabola from a high knife-cut in the precipice to the discoloured river. Out of many a deep cleft in the cliffs on cither side a cataruoting stream rushed in-with its contribution of mad waters, and one great angry stream, the largest tributary we" passed, the Manganui-B-te-ao, delivered over its quota from the central volcanic range with thunderous ravings. And in soft and lovely contrast to all this savagery of the elements was tho grefin and' flowerspangled bush that curtained the cults and swept down the slopes to tho overbrimming river until its lowest trees were submerged in the rushing waters. Everything was soaked through ana through, and from every trunk and leaf came the bush scents, that ram brings forth in strength. And along the lower banks, and growing in little copses here and there on dripping tongues of land, whore the slopo was less abrupt, there was the kowhai tree, all a-dangle with its rich showering of yellow blossom. Still higher up the Wanganui, nearmg laum.irunui, I have seen tho kowhai in greater profusion, but never did it appear so golden a sight, so gorgeous against th 0 grave, dark green forest,, as on those flooded reaches of the Wahi-Pari. The tuis were out, feasting on tho honey-flowers, balancing tbemsslves on tho swaying boughs and .twigs, and chuckling and gurgling in imn ensa satisfaction. Tho kowhai and the tui, thov made tho one cheerful note in the wet and sombre landscape holding out a rainbow hope of summer and tho sun again.

ON PAPJ-NCI TOP. P.iri-nui was en amazingly remote Maori village, perched like an eagle s nesb on a cleared hill-top four hundred feet above the riverside, where we tied up among the willows. It was just then tho scene of a gathering of the clans from far up and down the Wanganm for tho opening of a meeting-house and the attendant- feast and political talkHundreds of pcopio were there, quartered in the big talking-house and long sloeping sheds and tents and wliares; and everyone of them was wet and muddy, and 'short in the temper. The continuous rains had made the nowly laid out "marae," or parado ground, a slippery.expanse of. mud; the track from the riverside was a toboggan slide of yellow mud; tho brown girls' smart gowns wero. splashed with mud to the waists, and the camp hosts and workers were mud to the eyes. The non-toilers were swathed in blankets and shawls, and a Maori member of. Parliament, who was taking his gruel from sundry discontented constituents, in an oratorical mood, sat on the mocting-house mats swaddled in a big 'possum rug. The head man of th 0 kadnga, sour and disgruntled at the unkind weather, sulked in his tent, and would nob be comforted. Tho "' Kowhai floods," exceptional in duration, had quite spoiled the gathering, for which h e had been preparing for well-nigh a year, and upon which ho had spent all the ready cash he and his generous tribespeoplo of Ngati-Ruru could rake together. That was kowhai time on the Upper Wahganui. We have just bad some experience of the springtime floods in Canterbury, coinoidentally with tho flowering of tho, tree of the ■ Maori spring; but to realise the full depth of discomfort that a prolonged spoil of the spring rains brings on© must W set down in a lonely bush camp, with a flooded dangerous river for the only highway, and a mud bath awaiting one at tho first step outside the'leaky hut or tent. ' Tho blossoming of the Kowhai is, however, something, more than a hint to the country dweller to patch up the leaky places and look out his gum-

boots, and for the riverside settlers and Maoris to haul their boats and canoes well above the old flood level. It marks the beginning of plantingtime, the opening of tho new season; the first sign and token that the winter really is over at last. Its blaze of gold, a dress in which it arrays itself long before most flowering trees are thinking of their spring clothes, is at once a harbinger of warm, pleasant days to come and a call to the.land labour of another year. This flower reminder to the Maori is associated with the presently-coming cry of the shining cuckoo, the pipi-wharauroa, with its "Koia, koial"—" Dig away I" —a call that as summer comes is exchanged for tho sweet, long-drawn " Kui-kui, whiti-whiti-ora."

THE KOWHAI IN THE GARDENS. In the Christchurch Botanical Gardens a most beautiful variety of the kowhai is to bo seen just now in all its glory of hanging yellow blossoms; it stands by the pathside near the north bridge, in front of the tea-house. This is, perhaps, not the most common variety of the sophora tribe in -the South Tsland; but it is the loftiest form, growing into a tree of thirty feet or so, t s it is the most richly garmented with flowers for a too-brief period of gorgeous adornment. Many a Christchurch private garden is tho richer for a'kowhai of one or other of the three varieties, and its laburnum-like shower of flowers is the first of all the garden treasures to make display of its awakening, unless wo except some of the exotic cherries and plums. On the Port Hills, too, the kowhai is out; there are somo single trees and little clumps on the sunny road between Rapaki and Governor's Bay, which aro usually in blossom before those on these damp and foggy plains. . . Botanists tell us that tho kowhai, which is reallv a distinguished member of the pea family, is evidence of a former land connection between New Zealand and the South American continent. It is said to be found on Easter Island. Juan Fernandez ""- 1 the south coast of Chili, and, on the other hand, upon Lord Howo Island, in the Western Pacific . . The scarlet cliahthua, which is called by tho Maoris kowhai ngutu-kaka or parrot's-beak kowhai, because of the shape of its very rioh and lovely flowers, doss not seem to carry l any special association with Native legend and folk-talk. It is the yellow kowhai. more especially the deciduous form common In the North Ishmd-which produces its flowers before the bursting of the leaves—that is heard of in traditions and songs. "Te ura o to kowhai " (" the glow of the kowhai_ ') is a common expression, and the iNativo was quick to appreciate the beauty or tho drooping clusters of rich blossom reflected on the glassy waters of tho rivers and the calm harbours and lakes. Kowhai is the usual Native colour term for yellow. In poetic oratory reference is made to a semi-mysti-or ' Tree ot Life " : in an address abounding in classic and mythological allusions presented to the lato Sir John Gorst at Waahi, Waikato, in 1906 by Mahuta ana. his followers, there was an allusion to Britain, the home of the King and Parliament, as the seat of the kowhai-tur-anga-ora to which the Maoris looked for help and life. THE FLOWERS OF TAUPO.

Turning to our pakeha poets, it is rather ourious that the two famous nen who have made mention of tho kowhai both found their inspiration right in the heart of the North Island, on the eastern shore of Lake Taupo. Here th e pumice-sanded coast, advancing into the blue lake in rounded knolls end shining white cliffs and retreating in sheltered curving bays, is plentifully adorned wit ft groves and selvages of our tree of spring, and hero Mr Ru'lyard Kipling, coaching it round the lake by the Tokaanu-Tapuaoharuru road in the nineties, first saw the blossom ho introduced into his poem ' Tlia Flowers " :

... . Tho Kcwhai's gold Flung for gift on Taupo's faceSign that spring is come. But many a year before Kipling came, Alfred Domett penned his; characteristically exuberant, picturo of thoso beach-fringing fcowhais of pumice land in " Ranolf and Amohia ":—.

Tho limber-limbed tree that will shower- its Corollas—a eaffrony sleet, Till Taupo's soft sappharin© face is Illumined for wonderful spaces ■With a matting of floating flowerets, Drift-bloom and a watorsward meet For a watersprito's fairy feet. A LEGEND OF THE LAKES. In the north you will most frequently see that variety which sheds all its leaves in tho winter, one of New Zealand's few deciduous trees, and sud- , denly bursts into a flame of gold before ever a scrap of new foliage appears : on its naked branches. A folk-tale of the Rotorua Lakes country builds a quite romantic little story about this loaf-shedding kowhai. The legend concerns a young chief who was also by way of being a tohunga or priest and magician and a "puhi," a high-born girfof the Arawa tribe The young modicino man desired the girl, but his love was rejected time and again. At length tho scornful young lady so far relented as to promise to become tho tolumga's wife on condition that ho performed some wonderful feat of wiaardly might, some test in which no other man was likely to succeed. It was common knowledge, or at any rate belief, that a tohunga was able to kill n bird in its flight or to wither a tree, or even to kill a man, by a more effort of will and thought-projection, united to the utterance of certain incantations with the proper beat and rhythm. That was the usual test of the graduate

fiom the " whare-maire," the lodge of instruction.. But tho lady wanted more than that. "Put forth your utmost.effort of mind," she said; "let all men see the extent of your magical knowledge." The lover accepted the challenge. The village was on the bank of one of the lakes, and by the side of the marao stood a kowhai tree, all bare and leafless, for it was not yet spring. ,The tohunga declared. "I shall cause this tree to blossom before your eyes." So saying he put forth his utmost powers of mind, concentrating all his mental efforts on the wonderful task, and reciting his most powerful spells. And just as he made an end of his wizard prayers, there, before all eyes, the kowhai suddenly burst into full flower on all its naked branches. It was in a moment clothed with masses of beautiful hanging blossoms from top to lowermost boughs. Such was the wonderful mana of the Arawa tohunga. Tho amazed girl saw and was conquered ; the instiant adorning of this tree with its so lovely ooat of gold convinced her that no other tohunga could Jhope to equal hers. So happily ended this affair of hearts; the which, although it may bo scoffed at by the scientific botanist, may well enough servo as the bones of a pretty little idyll of our Land of Lakes. A NATIONAL FLOWER.

Tho kowhai has more than onoe been suggested as <a suitable flower emblem for New Zealand: as in fact the national flower of tho l>ominion, just as tho wattle is Australia's floral token in picture and'in song. The rata has also, been suggested. The fern-leaf is already adopted for military badges and other purposes of national distinctiveness, and the flax-bush is the official badgo of the New Zealand Survey Department The kowhai certainly is one of tho most typically beautiful objects of our New. Zealand flora, and I can imagine no more charming blending of our unique flower and bird life than the sight of a sophora shrub ablaze with blossom and a tui, or perhaps a little family of tui, of iridescent' plumage, exploring tho drooping flowers for honey. In the north of New Zealand the pohutukawa, with its riot of great red blossoms, is a glorious object in midsummer, and these islands have no richer landscape to show than a Westland rata forest in flower clothing the lower sides of a great alpine valley from which issues a glittering tongue of glacier, a tongue of white fire against the soft delicious, green and the glowing crimson of the rata. But the kowhai, though its gay season is so short, may be cultivated everywhere; every garden and shrubbery could add it to its' beauties. Essentially is it our spring flower; and thero is a* tender appeal for us all in a suggestion that the kowhai, typifying as it does a new and glorious life, should be one of the blooms to strew and sweeten, with it 3 sisters the manuka and the koromiko. the last resting-places of New Zealand's heroic dead on the shelltorn foreign battlefields.