"My Own Country First"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

"My Own Country First"

A LAND OF LOVELINESS BOYS AND GIRLS, — I have been very busy all this week going through all the letters and stories and poems that had piled up during the weeks while I was away—of course, there* shouldn't have been many, because the Letterbox was really closed, but I forgave you this time. And now I must thank all those memb ira who have written this week to give me a " welcome home ' again. I was too far away in the wilds, during my holiday, to be able to send back letters for our page, oa 1/ did when I was in South Westland, but I often thought of you all, and wondered if some of you would one day be making the same holiday trip 1 was enjoying so greatly? One thing I am sure of——New Zealanders do not know nearly as much as they should know about their own country! It isn t altogether because of lack of time, or the expense of travel, either, for a great many New Zealanders have visited Australia, and kno\y it« cities quite Well, who have never journeyed more than a few hundred miles or so through theif own wonderful country. We in Auckland really know very little indeed of Otago or Southland or South Westland, where one must go for the most glorious scenery in all New Zealand. We have the wonderland of Rotorua, Wairakei, we have our kauri forests and Tongariro National Park, with its snow-capped Ruapehu and active volcano, Ngaruahoe, but for sheer grandeur one must go south to the great lakes and the sounds. _ You will read in our page to-day of one little New Zealand girl s trip across what has for years been known as " the finest walk in the worl ( d. That is a very big claim to make about any walk, and the opening of the new track from Lake' Manapouri to Bradshaw Sound, which 1 wrote about last week, has brought a rival into the field which 1 think will claim just as much attention from lovers of beautiful scenery as the Milford Track has done. But there need be no talk of rivalry where God's great gift of natural beauty is concerned. All beauty is ours to enjoy, and we should indeed feel proud and thankful that we are privileged to live in a land so richly dowered with loveliness. So mak? " See New Zealand First " your motto as you grow up, girls and boys, and then if you so luckly as to be ablo to visit other lands later on, you will have a standard of beauty by which to gauge the charms and attractions of countries overseas. ' j Greetings and love to you all, from r