MEDICAL TREATMENT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2098, 12 April 1922, Page 5

MEDICAL TREATMENT.

FOR SCHOOL CRDTLDREN. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night, In connection with the School Committees' Association, the Minister of Education says he regrets that it is impossible at the present time for the Education Department to undertake the expense of providing free medical treatment to school children* The most that can be do;ae in the meantime is to advise parents what medical iljeatment • j^ne^ssar^/

Xi-iii bi)&& Off 'A'HiiJ BUSH. DESCRIBED BY MM. J. H. STEVENS Yesterday's gathering of the Luncheon Ciuu was made unique by reason of tnc tact mat ladies were invited to be present as tne guests of members, ami noiabic aiso, on account ui trie very line address delivered by tne speaiter of tne- day, Mr j. i-l. Stevens, who spoke on tne fascinating suoject, "The Lure of tne bush." jir S. K. Lancaster presided. in his opening reniaras, Mr Stevens said: —"Dear" Ladies, and (incidentally) Mr Chairman ana uentlemen, — iFor the first time in the history of our Club, we are thus privileged to address you, and it will not be the last, just, tor your ears aione 1 would remark upon the jealous care with which these young men o£ tlie Club made their selection of born chairman ami speaker for tnc ttret field-day with their wives and sweethearts. \ou will note particularly ciuu wo have both assumed the beauty tints of autumn, but neither have shown the failing leaves of winter. Now for our good time together, you and I alone, in the beauty of the Esplanade. The kitchen and the office and even these men folk together. My pleasure in extending a welcome to you is greatly enhanced by the fact that jour interest and sympathetic hearing should ini Kiiire mc to put forth the best that is !in me. My further appreciation of the chairman's presence lies in the hope that he will, after hearing this necessarily brief address, straightway arrange to have every indigenous tree and shrub in our gardens plainly named with its always appropriate and descriptive Maori name, it would have been an eo.ua! pleasure to welcome the borough curator, Mr Black, iwhose genius is displayed in our now glorious beauty spots. The Tiritea reservoir reserve is, 1 think, the finest surviving specimen of! native bush ! within a hundred miles, but we have no regular means of reaching it. f'riIvate enterprise will get in anead of lour very much alive Mayor and reserves committee U they don't watch "The riant features of our .and with ! its characteristics, and interesting features, shouid be to every New Zea- ! lander an open book, to turn a page cf which some of my untaught observations may serve. Since boyhood I I have roamed in the bush, and looked with open eyes, but most candidly say that to me botany as a. science and the classification of plant;;, is an unknown language. It is many years j since Grant Allen, who also avoids I "the dry bones of technical botany, introduced me to these entrancing living pictures. In h.s "Story of the I Plants" he tells us that night flowering plants have white blossoms, and are highly scented in order that they may be more readily seen and smelt by moths which cross-fertilise them; thai certain flowers which are easily accessible to caterpillars, have hairy stems, thus preventing the loss of pollen when such prowlers crawl through tne grass to visit a sister bloom; that the Vrum lily gives us a striking example of provision for this marriage, ot plants hence the curious little lobster pot. at. the base of the Mower by wnich scores of tiny insects are imprisoned until the ripe pollen falls upon thorn, and they are released by the simultaneous withering of petals of the net which held them; how wind-fertilised flowers are. inconspicuous, scentless, and without honey. The ancient folk] lore of the Maori abounds in the love oi the forest, and shows that Tane the great Father, God of the Forest, was the creator of trees, birds, insects, and] eventually of man. They plant a tree to commemorate the birth of a child. The entry of land of "Uru Whenua ' svas tvpilied by a tree. Fire came from the Kauahi, or rubbing stick of the Kaikomako. Their calendar was marked by the flowering and fruiting of the various shrubs and trees, andj their first views of these shores in the dawn of their history was carried oy memory in the annual flowering of the native clematis, the "pua wananga. The origin of its name 'shows the poetic nature, of these primitive people. Leaving the legendary land! of Hawaiki because, of disscntion concerning land and women, they suffered untold privation at sea; but it was rot this, nor starvation, nor the sorrows of parting with friends, that wasj uppermost in their thoughts. Daily and, hourly they bewailed the loss of thenbeloved "Wanaga," which to them wan their code of ethics and philosophy of life. Arriving off the shores of Auckland in the-, early spring, they saw the beautiful festoons of clematis in the virgin forest. Rising in the canoes they stretched forth their hands and cried. "Pua Wananga," it is the flower of our Wananga. This story is typical of their naming of places, plants and persons." The speaker then proceeded to a description of the colour, habits, qualities and significance, in the Maori mind, of many of the most common of cur indigenous flowering plants, shrubs and trees, investing each with some point of peculiar interest. For example, the Kowhai, in the golden glory of its bloom, heralds to the natives the last frost and the first flood of the season. Kowhai Ngutu Kaka, or Kakabeak, another of the family, with brilliant crimson flowers, was long thought to be tropical, but is really a native. Hinau, with its white, bellshaped flowers, yielded a valuable black dye from the bark. Nikau, the sole representative of the palm in these islands, and the Ti-tree, were of special interest, as was Hororeka, or the tall lance-wood, which Darwin specially commented upon as the first instance revealed to him of evolution in the life of a single plant, on account of its dual system of foliage. Ko'-omiko was one of the best-known of native shrubs and the Titoki one of the handsomest of our trees, especially with regard to its foliage. The wonderful Rata, of which there were were several varieties: the Ramarama, or New Zealand myrtle, the delicate Karaka, and the Kareao, or supplejack, were all well worth cultivating in our gardens, and many of those mentioned were to be seen in the Esplanade. ! Many questions were answered by tho lecturer, who was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.