A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

Northern Advocate, 2 August 1919, Page 1

A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

THE MANUKA

Is there anyone reading this who does not know the manuka? Perhaps there are some who do not know it by that name. They call it the tea-tree, and when they spell it they put ti-tree, because they do not know its story.

Well, in the early days of our fair Dominion (it was a colony then), our grandfathers knew what hard times were. They did not live in luxury as we do, with all kinds of fancy things to eat. In those days they thought themselves well off if they had plenty of flour and sugar. Their supplies were brought by sailing vessel and came in large quantities so as to last for some months, that is, until the next boat came in; and it often happened that the boat was delayed by bad weather. Then the settlers were on short commons, and if they had not found out how to use the native plants they would sometimes have been almost starving.

Of course they could not have starved for th c lack of tea, but all the same they liked it just as we do, and when the fragrant product of China or Ceylon was all used up, they turned to their new and adopted land and asked what she could give

From Stewart Island, swept by freezing winds to the winterless north ; the soul of the manuka wafted the answer with every fragrant breath, "Throw my leaves into the boiling billy" And when the country was alight with the burning scrub, still and again, its message went up with the incense-like smoke, "Take and use my delicious leaves!"

So at last th e settlers did use the and it became such a common thing to brew tea with them, that it was manuka no logger, but tea-tree in name and in use. That is how the name got handed on to us. And when New Zealand is old enough to look back upon hundreds of years of her history, when the villages of tou'ay are towns, and large towns like Auckland and Wellington are ten times larger still, the people will smile with interest at the tea-tree, and b e reminded of those wild pioneer days in the early beginnings of New Zealand's prosperity.

Another story tells of a Scotchman on his way to New Zealand ? and who feared the new land would seem 3trange and foreign; but when he spied the manuka growing in an old familiar way on the hill-sides, he leaped ashore, and with waving plaidies cried, "This is the land for us, there is white heather here; where the heather grows there will the Scotchman live contentedly!" After that many more stalwart pioneers arrived, and although they soon found out that manuka was manuka and not heather, all the same, they very wisely decided New Zealand suited them very well, as it suits all who know what a rich, productive and beautiful land it Is. Here 'is la stray pag)e from presentday New Zealand history:—Henty and Warwick Clarke were riding home from school over the tea-tree hill. The tracks were so muddy that Mr Clark had slashed down som c teatree to lay across. "You can tell it's mid-winter," said Henity, giving his horse a swish, "because the tea-tree flowers are so plentiful." "You're right," said Warwick, "and I promised Alice to look out for .the pink-tinted ones. She wants to deck the vases." "It's a pretty little flower/answered Henty. "Dad was reading the other day that the common white manuka got first prize, as a flowering shrub at English Agricultural Shpw, That's a fact." '•Yea, t heard that too; Dad thought it a good joke; said he would send home a ship's cargo of it and make has fortune in prizes!" / "If you ask me," said Hent& pointing to a manuka with hr-ighter green leaves tjiaii the ordinary sort, ''that is a very pretty shrub," "Oh, that's black tea-tree," said' Warwick, ''because the bark is j black." j "Yes, but the wood is white, noc black, and the Maoris call it manuka-, rauriki. Have you nobiced, Warwick, that its flowers are very much smaller and have a creamy tinge in them? We could travel along here every day of our lives and ati'l know very little of the things* we see; it is a question o£ eyes and no eyes." °You youralf are a good observer, Henty. Anyway, -both sorts ■ can make fair-sized trees, and near the Auckland Domain there is an avenue of them. Do you rememb.w?" The boys were riyw riding down a slope, Tl\e sea was below, and often it blew a stiff gale on the. hills, as anyone could tell by the appearance of the manuka which was stunted and very wind-blown in appearance; but, like the Scotch heather, it never gives up because of hardships! Presently they met a man on horseback. "Good day, Mr Gregory, what's the hurry? Anything wrong?" "It's a bad job about Dan Fergus's boat," he said. "The wind tugged her at her moorings and they've crumbled up, so she's adrift—can't see her anywhere. I always told Dan to put in tea-tree piles, they stand the salt ! water; give me puriri for fencing, but

manuka for the salt water, I say. Well, so long boys, I'm off to break the news." We will now follow the boys to the farm house. Another brother was trotting about the milking shed on a tea-tree hobby horse, which had a fine bushy tail and flax harness. "Carry in the wood, boys," Mrs Clark called out. Nothing but teatree would suit her, for it gets the oven hot much quicker than the other woods. Mrs Clark's clothes' props were of tea-tree, and she used nothing else for pea-sticks. As for the "brush" part, the Clarks never lighted a fire without it, and it was splendid for a shelter fence, and to lay over a seed bed as a protection against frost and birds. There was excitement in the Clark family, for Alice was going to the Old Country for a holiday. And what was it she packed among hfu clothes so carefully? Sure enough, they were sprigs of tea-tree which were for burning in England on special occasions when New Zealanders got together to share ,in the aroma and delights of burning manuka. RIRORIRO.