THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH.

A LOVER—AND HIS LAND. " Thcro is a love in this world that is greater, I think, than any lovo that lias ever passed between human beings—it is tho lovo that a man has for a piece of earth that he has had to fight for and that ho lias had to tame." This is the keynote of Mr. Leonard Flomming's gallant book, " Tho Call of tho Veldt " (Heinemann), and tho introduction to what ho calls a lovo slory without a plot. Tho ailthor as a very young man took part in the Boer War and ho has some amusing tales to tell of tho unorthodox ways of tho body of farmers with whom he served. "Discipline! I remember a storekeeper, who was our captain, talking very severely to one of his good customers who now ranked merely as a trooper. ' Look here,' said this trooper to his captain in front of us all, ' if you don't shut up, you don't get my wool-clip next season.' " A Lonely African Farm. After tho war Mr. Flemming was allotted 1000 acres in tho Orango River Colony on a long Icaso. " Hero was I then, practically a schoolboy still, feeling a millionaire. One thousand acres of my own. And in stock, about 100 sheep, six oxen, a couple of cows, and in"cash about £7. And with all that beautiful optimism of youth that knows no curb I thought 1 could build up a farm in the wilds on that." This book is tho story of how that optimism was justified, and how, as John Galsworthy remarks in his foreword, " in spito of drought, locusts, hail, frost and at first the difficulties loft by tho Boer War, ho has won out by hanging on like grim death and enjoying it all the time."

The loneliness and tho silence threatened at first to overwhelm tho plucky boy, " I could hear tho beating of my own heart; tho tick of tho wrist-watch on my arm two feet away was quite loud and distinct; tho faint creaking of my belt might liavo been sounds of something miles away. For the first timo in my life I was absolutely alone. North, south, cast and west I could seo a hundred miles and more, and not a living thing visiblo in all that space! And hero was I. a speck, the smallest of ants, in tho middle of a vast, illimitable- expanse at tho back of nowhere ! And when I realised the puniness of myself .... I leant back and roared with laughter at the colossal cheek, the conceit of my thinking I could achieve famo and fortune here, alone in the wilderness." Great Clnud of Locusts.

After incredible toil and difficulty the first wheat crop was sown and tho young farmer had the joy of seeing 30 acres of once baro soil transformed by his own hands into a beautiful green. By November it was a gtorious sight and he had visions of a substantial cheque which would pay for moro oxen and more ploughs. Then one day in the distance he saw a pale yellow cloud. It extended from left to right fully eighty miles, and it was about 100 miles from the farm when he first saw it. It was a locust swarm. Hero was disaster, as yet far off; the warning was ample but this was tho cruellest irony of the situation, the only thing to do was to watch ruin approaching, nothing could bo done to avert it.

Gradually tho cloud grows browner, denser. Then a sound steals into the silence. It is tho distant whirr and roar oi billions and billions of wings beating tho air. " Before you—the rapidly approaching swarrn, shade and blotted landscape. Behind you—bright blue sky and miles of ripening crops and luxuriant pasture. It is tho last you will see of it for a year. Tho whirr 'becomes louder—becomes a roar and then with plunging suddenness tho thick' of tho swarm is over tho land and tho roaring of the wings is like some gigantic dynamo revolving at terrific speed. You may have to listen to this for days, it depends on tho size of the swarm, but when it does stop you feel that just half-an-hour more would havo* driven you mad. In ten minutes your green grass, yonr waving wheat is gone. Not 'one green blade is visible, not one green leaf, not one stalk. All eaten right down into the soil by millions of locusts." A Happy Ending. Since thoso days tho Government has tackled the locust problem and almost succeeded in stamping out tho pest. However, this gallant lover morely ploughed the land again and began to sow mealies. Even such a shrew as Naturo in South Africa is , not proof against this combination of courage, enthusiasm, and good temper. Mr. 1' Icmmintr is a successful man to-day, but he would not adviso any young farmer to begin as ho did. " After twenty years' experience, I realise that there are essential factors necessary to complete success in farming—capital, energy, faith. Any two of theso together will take one a long way, but Iho third factor must bo there, too. And perhaps tho most valuable of them all is faith."

On finishing this fascinating talo of a course of true lovo that ran anything but smoothly, every reader will echo the sentiments of Mr. "Galsworthy's farewell to its author: "The name, of Leonard Flemming's farm is ' G cluck ' —Good Luck: and 'Good Luck' T say to him and his like, who are still conquering Nature and giving us the stuffs of Life."

" Tlio Call of the Veldt," by Leonard Flemming (Heincrnaiin).